


Water, Earth, Fire, Air

by madness_and_smiles



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-13
Updated: 2013-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-07 15:30:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 68,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/432679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madness_and_smiles/pseuds/madness_and_smiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The future may be different, with electric lights and telegrams, but the world still needs the Avatar.</p><p>The Avengers set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I really can't be more direct than that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Man in the Iceburg

**Author's Note:**

> Right so, I hope this fic works out okay. I imagine that it's set in a time period that occurs between AtLA and LoK. 
> 
> Ehm. Any questions, comments, or concerns, you know what to do. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

T

Time did not exist. It was an eon in the space of a wink, cold and dark until suddenly it was not. It was nothing, and then it was over.

        “He’s breathing!” the voice sounds far away and garbled in his ears, and he shudders when he tried to put the pieces together. “Look – he’s coming ‘round.”

        The feel of air against his skin cuts sharp as knives and the first time that Steve tries to open his eyes he is forced to immediately close them, the light being far too much. He tries again and is able to make out a pair of deep brown eyes and a tousled head of dark hair.

        “You’re going to be fine,” the voice says to him, and Steve can’t keep his eyes open anymore so he falls back into the darkness.

-

         Eventually Steve blinks, and blinks again, and he sees light which becomes colors which become shapes which become people. Four people, to be exact, who are standing above him and peering far too closely.

          “Can I help you?” Steve asks, because he is nothing if not polite. His tongue feels heavy in his mouth and his voice comes out scratched and raw. Something is not right. He tries to sit up and notices that he is lying on a bed, in a small metal room.  Where did that come from? How is he here? What was he – and with his next breath, Steve remembers everything. Standing on the ship and the fire coming too fast, too many men going over the railing and then diving in after Bucky -

He’s on his feet now, shaky but standing, and he’s backing away from the people around him. He needs to get out of here. This is not his ship, these are not his soldiers.

           “Where am I?” he demands, and for a moment he falters at the lack of earth beneath his feet, but in the next second his fingers are pulling spikes of air close, ready to defend. Three of the people look at each other and run, the fourth one stays.

           “Whoa buddy,” the man starts, and Steve faces him fully. He’s in his late 20s or early 30s, with a mess of dark hair, intense brown eyes, and a carefully maintained beard. He looks familiar in a way that Steve can’t place. He’s wearing a thick red parka, and strange metal gloves adorn his arms, they match the bizarre metal boots he has on. Steve looks at the red, combines it with what must be a weapon of some sort on his hands, and immediately thinks ‘ _Fire Nation._ ’ Steve has been fighting a war against the Fire Nation for 2 years now, and he will be damned if he lets himself get captured by a measly four soldiers. The other man notices the shift in Steve’s stance, and the way his eyes narrow at the weapon. “Oh dammit, I knew I shouldn’t have been the one to talk to him. Look,” the man says, holding up metal hands in the universal sign of surrender, “we come in peace, okay?” but Steve doesn’t move, so the man sighs, “Oh crap, can someone else explain this to him?” The man is yelling to the open door behind him, and it is then that Steve realizes that they’re on a ship. He spares a glance to the window at his left and sees that it’s a ship currently at sea, and moving very fast. If this is how fast the Fire Nation ships are going now, that might be cause for some worry.

           “Let me talk to him,” says a voice and Steve turns and sees a middle aged man, clearly a member of the Northern Water Tribe, walking towards them. His mouth is turned down in a frown, and he has a patch over one eye. “Steve Rogers, these men are not your enemies.” The man speaks with such authority that Steve is immediately sure the man is a general, which is odd because he thought he knew all of the Water Tribe generals.

            “But the war-“

            “Is over.”  It takes a second for the words to process, but then something inside Steve breaks a little bit. The war is over. Is over. _Over._ He has dreamed of hearing those words every day for the past two years, had thought that they would be his dying breath, and suddenly they are handed to him like a gift that he is afraid to unwrap.

            “How is that possible?” Steve asks, because the last time he checked, he was on a boat headed towards the fire nation looking for battle, not peace negotiations. It doesn’t make any sense, it has to be a trick of some sort. “Why should I trust you?” Steve tenses as the one-eyed man moves in a fluid motion, picking a stream of water out of the sea and laying it frozen at Steve’s feet. Clearly a waterbender then, but still…

            “We can explain everything, but you’re going to need to trust us.” The general’s tones are soothing, like he’s talking Steve down from the ledge. Steve shoots the bearded man another look, and he shrugs.

            “Look, if we really were evil Fire Nation-“  
            “I never said the Fire Nation was evil,” Steve interjects, because he knows they aren’t. Manipulated by a power-hungry leader? Yes. Evil? No. The war was hurting the Fire Nation citizens as much as anyone else, which was part of the reason Steve had been so desperate to end it.

        “Fine,” the man continues, clearly annoyed at being interrupted, “If we really were morally neutral Fire Nation soldiers, why on earth would we let you wake up before attacking you? Hell, why would we even release you from the damn iceberg? I would think that it’d be a lot easier to win the war without the Avatar-“

        “Who told you I’m the Avatar?” Steve growls, and in a flash a band of water has circled the other man, waiting to squeeze. No one had known that the Avatar was going to be on board that ship, Steve himself didn’t know he would be leaving until that morning, giving him barely enough time to say goodbye to Peggy before he left. He’d made her promise that when they came back, they could go penguin sliding together. She told him she’d do him one better; they could go dancing. The man gives Steve a look of pure disdain.

         “Of course you’re the Avatar! Why else would we have been looking for you for so long?!” Something about that sentence isn’t right. How long could they possibly have been looking for him? What had happened to his mission? To the war?

         “Stop talking right now Stark, or I’ll ruin those pretty boots of yours,” growls the general and Stark turns to him angrily.

         “I don’t need your threats, Fury. I did my part, I got the man. Or do you forget that it’s my ship that brought us here, and my suit that opened up the damn iceberg?” That tone of voice rubs Steve the wrong way. The general clearly has years of experience on Stark, what gives him the right to act like this?

         “You could show a little respect.” Steve says, and Stark rounds on him, a retort clearly on the tip of his tongue, when they hear a ferocious growl.

In a second the goggles previously resting atop Stark’s head are slapped down over his eyes, and his arms are up and ready for an attack.

          “What the hell was that?” he yells, and Steve can see sparks shooting from his gloves. A firebender then and the gloves are some sort of amplifier? Whatever, it doesn’t matter, because in a moment Steve is running out the door and down the hallway of the ship. As he runs he keeps a log of every door and crew member he passes. It’s a small ship, too small for a warship. The men that he passes don’t look like soldiers either. Eventually he reaches the deck and stops. The saber tooth moose lion is crouched in a defensive position, snarling horribly at the startled men around it, but as soon as it sees Steve it tosses its head back with a joyful roar and runs over to him. It butts its head up against Steve, who minds the large antlers and scratches the place right between the moose lion’s eyes.

           "Oh Harley,” Steve breathes and then he clutches fiercely at the animal’s neck, “I thought I lost you when I jumped into the water.” But of course his animal guide would follow him anywhere, even into the icy waters of the North Sea during the midst of a firefight. Harley whines and pushes closer against Steve, his large tooth catching briefly on the sleeve of Steve’s jacket.

           “So the stories are true,” Steve turns to see Stark watching them, “you really did ride a giant moose lion into battle.” Steve grins proudly and runs his hands across Harley’s flank. The creature was even more eager to charge into battle than Steve was, never flinching as bouts of fire came their way. He had been Steve’s companion ever since Steve and Bucky had found him while on their long walk to Ba Sing Se for earthbender training so many years ago. He wasn’t just Steve’s guide; he was Steve’s best friend, his soul.

            “Figures.” Stark’s contempt washes Steve’s smile off his face, and if he happens to slip on a patch of ice that wasn’t there a second ago… well…

            “You did that on purpose!” Stark cries, red-faced and furious as he hoists himself off the floor.

            “Prove it.” Steve sees Stark throw the general a look, but all the one-eyed man does is shrug, and in that moment Steve makes a decision. “Alright, if you were Fire Nation soldiers then you’re the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ll listen to what you have to say, but I want the truth.”

            “I’m glad you came to that conclusion.” The one eyed- man offers his hand, “General Nick Fury, of the Northern Water Tribe,” Steve grips it in a firm shake, “And this” he continues, gesturing at Stark who is now nonchalantly messing with his gloves, “is Tony Stark from the Fire Nation.”  
            “Don’t shortchange me, Fury.” Tony says, while shooting out balls of flame over the sea, “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Any one of those works as a descriptor.” Yeah, Steve definitely doesn’t like this guy. Neither does General Fury, judging by the look on his face.

            “Believe me, I know.” Fury trains his eye on Steve and sighs, “You want the truth Avatar Steve? Listen up.”

-

         Steve spends the rest of the day on the deck of the ship, resting against the steady form of Harley. No one seems to expect him to do anything else, not even help cook dinner. Which is fine, because he definitely needs the headspace.

         70 years. The war was over, but Steve wouldn’t get to have his dance with Peggy after all, or even go penguin sledding. Bucky had been declared MIA in the same mission as Steve, and Steve felt their absence like a hole in his heart. His friends from Omashu, his comrades from the Water Tribe, the monks he had trained with at the Southern Air Temple – all gone. He’d gone from 22 to 92 in a the space of a heartbeat.

          After he went missing, the Earth kingdom and the Water tribe deciding to keep it a secret until they miraculously won the war. Afterwards, the news was let out, but luckily they had enough of a handle on the situation to keep it in control. For several decades, they had waited for a new Avatar to be reborn, but it never happened. Some had given up hope, but people like Peggy had kept the search alive, employing the help of the other three nations. The work had been passed down until Nick Fury inherited the matter. They were still going nowhere until a couple of kids got lost on their canoe. They came across Steve in the iceberg, but couldn’t open it up to free him, so Stark was called in and now Steve was here, achingly awake.

           He had been told his whole life how important the Avatar was, how necessary the Avatar was, and yet they had won the war without him. The world had turned just the same, even though Steve had been stuck in a block of ice. It was as if he was still just a scrawny orphan back in Omashu – he didn’t matter.

           “Avatar Steve?” a voice calls, and Steve sees an air-nomad poke his head out of the door. He’s around 40 years of age, and his blue eyes crinkle at the sight of Steve. “I was wondering if you would like some dinner.” He’s holding several plates of steaming vegetable curry over white sticky rice in the one hand, and a bucket of feed for Harley in the other. Both Steve’s and Harley’s stomachs growl at the sight, causing Steve to emit a surprised laugh.

            “I haven’t eaten in 70 years, so that would be wonderful, thank you.”  Steve sits up and accepts the plate graciously, while the man passes the bucket to Harley who digs in eagerly. The monk looks around hesitantly for a second, holding his own plate. It’s clear he would rather stay outside, but he’s also too polite to intrude. Steve gestures to the ground, “Please, have a seat….”

            “Phil.”

            “Phil, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Honestly, he could use more time alone, but he doesn’t want to force the monk back into the ship if he feels uncomfortable there.

            “I hope you don’t mind.” Phil says, as he crosses his legs on the ground. He waited for Steve to take his first bite, and then begins. Steve takes in his yellow and red uniforms, and thinks that it wasn’t so long ago that he was wearing one himself when he went to master airbending, but then he remembers that it has actually been decades and he can’t help but grow warm at the sight. It’s good to see that some things don’t change.

            “70 years, and they haven’t changed the uniform… tell me, what temple do you come from?”  
            “I am a monk of the Southern Air Temple.”  Which causes Steve to smile.

            "That’s where I received my airbender training!” and he watches in bemusement as a small blush creeps up the monk’s neck.

            “I know, I’m… I’m a big fan. My father would always tell me stories about you, how you mastered the techniques faster than anyone before, even the previous avatar, how you were one of the kindest people he ever met.”

            “Who was your father?” because surely the old monks that Steve knew couldn’t have a song this young.

            “I’m a son of Coul.” Phil lowers his eyes and takes another bite while Steve leans back against Harley in astonishment. He remembers Coul now, vividly. How could Coul have a grown man for a son? He was just a child himself, barely 10 years old and sliding down the temple walls on his air scooter, always hanging off Steve’s arm and begging him to play a game of air-ball. But looking closer, Steve sees the resemblance in the blue of Phil’s eyes and the slant of his nose.

            “I remember Coul.” He says slowly, which causes Phil to absolutely beam, “What was he like? As a man.” Because suddenly Steve is hungry, starving for knowledge of a life he missed.

            “He was kind, patient, and he played the best practical jokes at the temple.” Phil smiles into his food, clearly reliving some of Coul’s funnier moments, and then he looks up and his eyes bore in Steve’s own, “You know, he always believed that they would find you. ‘The world needs the Avatar just as much as the world needs Steve Rogers’ he would say.” Phil keeps his eyes on Steve, but Steve looks down at his hands.

            “I used to think that, but now I’m not so sure. The world seems to have been doing fine without me.”

            “No!” The change from Phil’s subdued tone startles Steve, “How can you think that? The world…” Phil pauses, considering his words, “The world has continued, sure. We are no longer at war, which is a blessing. But each day is a constant battle to maintain balance between the elements. I don’t think we would have come so far without looking to you as an example, and we are now reaching our breaking point.” Phil looks up at Steve, his eyes shining, “There is still so much good for you to do Avatar Steve. I believe you can save the world.”

            “Thank you.” There is really nothing else that Steve can say after that, nothing else he trusts himself to say, and the two finish their dinner in a companionable silence. Steve leans back against Harley, and lets his friend’s warmth wash over him. He’s just about to close his eyes when he sees Stark’s head poke out of the door.

            “Hey, monk-man, iceberg, Fury wants you.” And then he’s gone. Steve and Phil stand, and Phil catches the look of annoyance on Steve’s face.

            “The monks have an old saying: sometimes the noisiest lemur-“

          “- is the one who saves the flock,” Steve finishes. He has heard his share of old sayings. “Do you think that applies to Stark?”       




            “Well, he saved you. He carried you out of the ice and onto the boat.”

            “He did?” Steve feels his cheeks heat up. He doesn’t like the idea of being helpless and in Stark’s care.

            “Yes. Anthony Stark has never been my favorite person; he’s loud, rude, and obnoxious. He lets his emotions go and his mouth run, but there is more to him that meets the eye, Avatar. You would do well to remember that.”

            Together, they walk inside.

 

 


	2. The Bright Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm really glad you enjoyed the first chapter, and are hopefully back for more. To be honest I'm kind of nervous about writing this fic, so I really hope you all continue to enjoy it. As usual, I appreciate all questions, comments, and concerns. You're a lovely bunch.  
> Also once again this chapter would not be possible without fuckitfireeverything who assured me it wasn't terrible.

            Steve walks into the main room of the ship with Phil to find General Fury, Stark, and handful of other ship members seated around large table with a map of the world. Between Fury’s glare, the map, and the metal walls it strikes a frightening similarity to discussions in the war room and Steve finds himself mentally prepping for a battle scenario. However, instead of launching into talks of tactics and fatalities, he is greeted only with a cautious silence. Steve sits down in his chair and tries not to compare faces in front of him to the faces of the kids in Omashu, once Steve was found to be the Avatar. They had made him feel like a rabaroo in the zoo, with their wide eyes and careful expressions. He looks around at the worried frowns one by one, until he reaches Stark. Steve expects another frown, or at least a smirk, but instead he just gets a tired sigh from the man.

            “Alright,” says Stark, breaking the silence, “I know we’re all thinking it, so I’m going to come out and ask. How does a 90 year old man look so good?”

            “Stark.” Fury’s growl is clearly an order, but it goes unheeded by Stark who leans over the table to peer closely at Steve’s face. He gets so close that Steve can’t help but lean backwards in his chair, if only the escape the hot puffs of breath over his face as Stark speaks.

            “I’m serious. What’s your secret? Healing? Lotions? Salves? I’m starting to develop some wrinkles myself and I was just wondering-“

            “We are here,” Fury intones, “To discuss the future of The Avatar.”

            “Well you’re doing a pretty poor job of it,” Stark sneers in response. Even though Steve doesn’t like Stark very much and even though Stark was probably only trying to annoy him, he can’t help but be a little grateful. All of the looks are now directed at Stark, who is sitting back in his with his arms crossed over his chest. Steve noticed the lack of the gauntlets and wonders again at their purpose. Could Stark’s aim really be so bad that he needed gloves to help him? He’s never known anyone to rely on a crutch like that.

            “Avatar,” Fury’s voice brings Steve’s attention back and he locks eyes with the older man.

            “Sir.”

            “We are here to discuss your future. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

 Steve ignores the biting edge of Fury’s tone, he knows it’s just irritation at Stark, and instead focuses on the word future. He’d had a future once; it was something he clung to in the middle of the night, when he needed to believe that the war wouldn’t take this current life from him. He had the promise of a dance with Peggy, and the comfort of his friendship with Bucky. He had his quiet dreams of a home at the top of Omashu, and of children with Peggy’s hair and his eyes. That future is a lifetime gone by though, and Steve knows his duties have remained the same, but any desire he felt for the future has vanished.

            “I suppose,” he says after a second, “I would like to visit Omashu again.” Because he hasn’t been back since he was 15 and at the moment it’s all he has left of the future. He wonders how the city has grown, if they still use the mail chutes, and if the cabbage stand’s cabbages will still taste as good even when he’s not starving. He wonders if the cabbage stand even exists anymore. Probably not, given the amount of times it had been destroyed by an errant blast of rock.

            “We can do that,” says Fury, and he begins pointing to the map. “First though, we will be stopping at the North Pole. We’ve sent a telegram saying they could expect us late tonight-“

            “Telegram?” Steve asks, because _what?_

            “The transmission of electrical hertz waves to-”

            “Transmission of _what?”_ because did Stark really expect Steve to understand that?

            “It’s like an instant messenger hawk.” Coulson supplies helpfully, and Steve smiles his thanks.

            “As I was saying,” Fury continues, eyeing Stark who gives a ‘hey what did I do?’ look back, “They will be expecting us at midnight. Avatar Steve, you may stay for as long as you need, and then take a boat to the Earth Kingdom, and walk to Omashu as I don’t believe your saber tooth moose lion would be comfortable aboard a flying bison.”

            “No,” and Steve can’t help the smile when he pictures Harley trying to maintain his enormous girth on top of a flying bison. “I don’t think he would.”

            “The bigger question is, what do you intend to do after you visit home?” Fury is eyeing Steve curiously, and he wants to say is that he will fulfill his duties as Avatar of course, but then he remembers something, something very important.

            “I do intend to fulfill my duties as Avatar, and take over the task of maintaining balance in this world. I don’t know what methods you’ve used to cope in my absence, but rest assured that it will be I who bears the burden from now on,” several of the people at the table look pleased, but Fury’s mouth rests in a hard line. “I do have something I need to accomplish first though.” Steve sees the men around him perk up with interest. “I uh, I never exactly finished my Avatar training.” The men stay silent and Steve continues, “I still need to learn firebending.”

            Steve isn’t embarrassed of the admission exactly. He’d had a late start as Avatar in the first place, since he wasn’t discovered until he was at least 14, at which point he had had no formal earthbending training. Hell, he could barely push a rock around. In their neighborhood scraps, it had been Bucky who did most of the heavy lifting while Steve threw himself into the fights with fists swinging. Most people didn’t even know he _could_ earthbend.

            After the discovery, it felt like all of the blocks Steve had faced before were gone, and he mastered earthbending, airbending, and waterbending with relative ease. He had been proud of the work he had done, of the power and skill he had attained after years of concerted effort. Soon he was no longer the skinny orphan struggling to move a handful of stones, he was strong and adept, he was on his way to becoming a true Avatar. But then it was time to start firebending, and suddenly they were at war with the Fire Nation. Where was he supposed to find time to learn firebending, let alone a master willing to instruct him? It’s perfectly understandable, and all Steve can do now is finish his training.

            Still, he wishes he could have told this to General Fury somewhere a little more private, without the table’s looks of astonishment and Stark’s bark of laughter

            “Oh that’s rich! You were the scourge of the Fire Nation! Every man, woman, and child feared you, and you couldn’t even firebend!”

            Steve feels his face grow hot with rage and he wishes he had better control over himself than this, wishes he wasn’t letting the day’s frustrations and his own insecurities beat out the teachings he received from the monks so many years ago, but all the same he finds himself standing up and striding over to Stark’s seat.

            “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you. How far would you get without those precious gloves of yours?” which causes something in Stark’s face to twist.

            “I don’t know _Avatar,”_ Stark rises to his feet, “How far do you think you would get if you weren’t relying on the strength of past lives?”

            The atmosphere around them seems to cackle with energy, and just as Steve is about to suggest that they take it outside, he feels the burst of air slam between them. For a second he thinks he’s lost control of his own bending along with his emotions, but then he looks to the side and sees Phil with his arms outstretched.

            “I’m sorry,” Phil says mildly, “but I think we should all sit down.” Phil looks expectantly at Stark’s chair, but Stark just shoots the monk a look and walks out of the room in a huff of anger. Phil turns back to Steve, but all Steve can do is shake his head and bow apologetically.

            “I think I should go for a walk as well, I hope we can continue this conversation tomorrow General Fury,” and before the man can protest Steve walks out of the room and back onto the deck of the ship. He is a little relieved when he doesn’t hear Phil following him, because he’s not sure he could handle company right now.

            Harley is there waiting for him, and Steve rubs the moose lion’s forehead fondly. Together they lean against the railing, Steve idly twisting a stream of water in the air. Steve doesn’t know what to say or do; everything is moving so fast. The war was hard, yes, but at least Steve had a clear path, clear objectives. He knew who his friends were, and who his enemies were. Now, everything is all muddled. He finds himself thinking about visiting the Fire Nation. How will people react to him, when his last action against them was one of war? He wonders briefly if Stark’s aversion to him has something to do with that, but then rights it off as a general character flaw. Gosh, he doesn’t even know who to turn to for firebending lessons.

            Steve grimaces when he recalls Stark’s words to him. Steve has never wanted to rely on anyone for anything. He would come home with a pair of broken legs before he would go running to Bucky for help. Luckily the other boy was usually just a step behind Steve and could intercede before it got to that point. Afterwards, when Steve was the Avatar, he couldn’t always shake the feeling that he was acting on borrowed power. As he became more confident with his bending, and more comfortable with his past lives he knew that it was an unfounded worry, but every now and then it had a habit of rearing its ugly head.

            Still, he can’t help but feel slightly ashamed when he thinks of his last words to the Stark. He’s the _Avatar_ ; he’s supposed to be solving conflicts, not creating them. Stark is the one who broke him out of the ice, and ultimately Steve owes him for that. He’s cooled down now, his blood is no longer beating furiously in his head and his vision isn’t going red. If Stark is going to be someone in Steve’s future, and it certainly seems that way, then it’s up to Steve to make amends.

           “Come on Harley,” he says and the two of them set off to find Stark. They walk the length of the deck twice before Steve realizes that Stark isn’t anywhere outside. The sun has almost set by now, and Steve looks at the glass lanterns up above, wondering who will come outside to light them when suddenly they are exploding with light all by themselves. “Well I’ll be damned…” Steve mutters. He goes inside the ship and sees that the hallways are perfectly lit with the strange glass bulbs as well, not a dark corner in sight. “The future just gets stranger and stranger.” He walks down the bright hallways, because if Stark isn’t outside then he must be inside. He peeks into every open room, knocks on a couple of others, but Stark doesn’t seem to be here either. Steve is just about to give up, when he notices a small staircase off to the side. Maybe…

           When Steve descends the staircase he finds himself in a small workshop, with Stark at the table tinkering with some strange machine. He has his goggles pulled over his eyes and a smear of grease runs across his cheek.

           “The lights outside are light bulbs,” Stark says, as if reading Steve’s mind, “they run on electricity, which I’ve wired throughout the entire ship. It was a technology invented in the past decade, thought it probably wouldn’t have gotten this far without me.” Stark lets out a snort and tightens a bolt on the machine.

           “It’s very… modern…” Steve says, unsure of what other word would be appropriate. Stark probably wouldn’t appreciate his ship being called strange. “I didn’t realize you had built the ship, I thought you just bought it.”

           “Well I did,” Stark says and then there is a silence. Steve fidgets while trying to decide exactly what to say. Eventually Stark looks up at him, and Steve sees his own reflection in the dark lenses of the goggles. He looks tired. “Can I help you?”

            "Yes, I just… I came to apologize for losing my temper,” there, that was a good start, and the dark haired man seems to be listening, “it was undignified and uncalled for.” Stark watches him silently, and Steve can’t the expression on his face because of the way the goggles cover his eyes. “Today has been… difficult for me.”

            “I bet.” Stark snorts and turns back to his glove. “Do you know the reason the Fire Nation feared you? Or at least, one of the reasons?” Stark doesn’t give Steve time to answer before continuing, “It was because they thought you could do what they could do, but better. They thought that you could beat the Fire Nation at its own game, and that idea terrified them.”

            “Well I wasn’t about to shout out my weaknesses during a war,” Steve mutters and Stark mouth is a thin smile of agreement.

            “No, I suppose not. That fear is what drove my old man so far, and he would be rolling in his grave if he learned that you couldn’t even firebend. Or maybe he’d be laughing it up. Who knows. Who cares?” Stark straightens unscrews a different bolt while Steve processes this information.

            “So your father was… alive during the war?”

            “Alive and kicking. He gave the allied movement a run for its money.” Stark’s tone is tight and measured, consonants clicking against his teeth. His father must have been a great Fire Nation general, for him to have held such power. “He taught me the basics.”

            “He taught you firebending?”

            “What?” Stark turns towards him and even though his eyes are covered, his mouth is open and puzzled. “I’m not a firebender.” Which makes no sense to Steve because didn’t he just see Stark shoot fire out of his hands this morning? Steve is about to ask but Stark keeps talking. “Although he certainly wished that was the case.” The words are bitter and they rest heavily in Steve’s gut.

            “But earlier today you-“

            “He taught me the basics.” Stark says again, and he puts on the glove and suddenly there is a bloom of fire sitting in the palm of his hand, beautiful and dangerous. “I don’t bend, Avatar, I build.”

            “So you can’t do anything without the gloves?” Steve means the question honestly; he’s just trying to figure out how far Stark’s ability extend. He personally thinks the gloves are a work of art, a feat of science he never believed possible. However Stark stiffens in response and anger flashes in his eyes. Just as he’s about to respond, the boat is wracked with a shuddering boom. Steve finds himself thrown against the wall, and he sees Stark scrambling for purchase on the floor. Steve yanks open the door to the staircase, and looks behind him to see Stark pulling the gloves on. He waits a beat for Stark and then the two of them make their way to the deck of the ship.

            “Great spirits….” Steve says, absolutely in awe of the creature in front of him. It’s a Giant Shark Squid, its white glistening body standing easily 30 feet tall. It has one large tentacle wrapped around the helm on the ship, and another 3 are waving wildly in the air. Teeth in its perpetually open mouth resemble rows of spears, and Steve can see scraps of rotten flesh hanging off of them. The stench of the squid’s breath washes over Steve and he knows he won’t be able to eat fish for at least a week.

            “See, this is why I wanted to have my own pilot on this expedition,” Stark mutters nonchalantly, as if he were complaining about the traffic in Ba Sing See, “Happy would never have ran us directly into a sea monster.”

            “Right,” says Steve, unsure of who Happy is and not really caring at the moment. Harley charges antlers-first into the squid’s tentacle, but his bite only causes the limb to wrap tighter around the ship, slightly bending the metal beneath. Steve notes that attacking the tentacles won’t work, looks around to see Phil and Fury run up behind them, and suddenly the strategy comes together in his head. “Fury, I’m going to need you to freeze the water around the squid, we don’t want it moving, or using any more of its tentacles. Phil, if you could be light on your feet, and give the tentacles something to chase, it’d really help. Stark, follow me.”

            It takes less than a second for everyone to act on Steve’s words. Fury is spreading his hands and stopping the squid in its tracks, while Phil is running up the length of the tentacle attached to this ship, and from there he begins to flip around the squid. Every jump springs him higher than the last and the squid can’t seem to decide where to send its arms. Steve draws Tony up alongside squid and points at the squid’s eyes. Stark shoulders his way out of Steve’s grip and nods.

            “Way ahead of you, but you better not miss.”

            “I won’t.”

            Stark nods again and immediately sets his gloves on the squid, while Steve raises a stream of water and freezes it into a deadly point. The fire streams over the squids eyes just as Steve hurls the icicle into the back of the monster’s throat. For a tense moment there is only the sound of the monster screaming, and the smell of burnt sewage, and the pitching of the boat as the squid rocks back and forth in pain. Finally, its tentacle loosens its hold on ship, slackening until it slides into the water with a sickening slurp. The head disappears next, and only once it is completely submerged under water do the four benders relax.

            “Good commanding, Avatar.” Fury doesn’t sound impressed or surprised, and Steve can’t help but wonder what the ship was doing in squid infested waters in the first place. It’s a thought he’ll have to save for later because suddenly members of the crew are patting his shoulders and shaking his hand. He smiles to all of them and humbly dismisses their thanks. After all, what was he going to do? Let the ship get destroyed? Submerge himself in ice for another 90 years? Not likely. Steve waits patiently for every last crewmember to finish expressing their gratitude before calling Harley and walking back to the bow of the ship. He finds Stark there, leaning heavily on the railings and watching the flame flicker in the palm of his hand.

            “Good work back there,” Steve says, because he has to say something. Stark looks up quickly and snaps his fist around the flame, extinguishing it. His goggles are pushed up into his hair, and from this distance Steve can see the dark circles under the man’s eyes.

            “All thanks to the leadership of Captain Avatar,” Stark replies drolly, and he doesn’t unclench his fist.

            “You had already thought of the same thing,” Steve points out, and the dark haired man shrugs.

            “Hey, I can’t do anything without the gloves, remember?” Stark shuts the goggles over his eyes and walks back inside before Steve can even think of a reply.

-

            “I am still upset the death of the squid,” Phil says, and Steve hears Fury sigh.

            “While I greatly admire and respect the monk’s belief in the sanctity of all life, this was a kill or be killed situation, and I’d rather have a squid at the bottom of the ocean than my crew.”

            “But-“

            “Land ho!!” 

             Steve peers over the edge of the boat and sure enough, there is the North Pole lit up against the dark night sky. Probably using the light bells, or light bobs or whatever they were called. As the boat approaches the lights get bright, and Steve finds bending over the rail in awe. It’s _beautiful_. The lights are all sorts of colors – reds and blues and purples and greens, twinkling brighter than the stars. They illuminate the ice and take Steve’s breath away.

            “Welcome to the future, Steve.” Phil says beside him.

            “Does everywhere look like that?” Steve wonders, and Phil shakes his head.

            “No, there are still places without electricity. The Air Temples, for instance, have chosen to remain powerless for the time being. There is a hot debate going on between the monks about it.”

            “It’s also not usually this pretty, either.” Fury comments, “They’re waiting for you.”

            The boat approaches the dock and Steve can see the faces of at least a hundred people, maybe more, waiting for him with smiling mouths and expectant eyes. In front of them is a woman with stern blue eyes and a mouth in a thing line; clearly the chief. Steve grips the railing as the boat docks, and the gangplank is lowered for him and Harley to step off. There is no noise except the thrum of the ship, and the padding of Harley’s big feet down the plank. Eventually Steve reaches the bottom and is face to face with the woman.

            “Avatar Steve, my name is Chief Maria Hill. It is an honor to meet you.” She bows, and Steve bows back.

            “Chief Hill, the honor is mine. Thank you for giving me the hospitality of your tribe.”

            “You must be tired, after such a long day. But first, we entreat you to feast with us.”

            “What’s on the menu?” Stark has emerged from the ship and his rubbing absentmindedly at the grease on his cheek.

            “Our Tribe’s specialty: fried squid.”

            Stark visibly shudders while Phil looks like he’s going to be sick. Steve sighs, if he ever smells another squid again it will be too soon. Out of the crowd he sees several people approach. There is a woman with hair as red as fire, pulling on the wrist of a large man. Stark sees them and steps away from the Chief

            “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass. The Avatar can have my portion, he _loves_ squid.” Stark walks towards the two people and suddenly the three of them are lost within the crowd. Chief Hill turns towards Steve and Phil with a smile on her face.

            “Sorry,” Phil says, “I don’t eat meat, plus there is someone I have to see.” He bows towards Steve, “Have a wonderful dinner Avatar.” And then he is gone too. Steve stands alone in the crowd, looking at the hopeful faces around him.

            “Thank you, squid sounds… delicious.”

             Worse comes to worse he can always feed it to Harley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Well that was fun. So, somethings I am going to clarify right now.
> 
> 1) There was never a Giant Shark Squid in either atla or lok. I made it up.
> 
> 2) Tony's dad was old when he was born
> 
> 3) I know that technically, were I following the pattern of the show, Steve's last element would be water. HOWEVER I am changing that for no reason other than I want to for purposes of storytelling. In this world, Avatars can learn the elements in any order. I'm aware that is a less spiritual and metaphorical option, but it is what it is.
> 
> 4) I also know that Avatars do not usually begin training until age 16. Once again, this is something I changed to suit my own purposes.
> 
> anyways yes, I really hope you enjoyed the new chapter. I'm going to try to update about once a week.


	3. The Northern Water Tribe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So, a bunch of you are still with me which, wow, thank you. I can only hope that you continue to enjoy this because making you happy makes me happy. I know that these last couple chapters have maybe been a little slow going but it should pick up soon.  
> If the formatting is a little wonky I want to apologize. I've been having some issues lately.

_“Where did that ship come from?” Bucky’s eyes are hot and furious as they stare over the sea, his hands are clenched tight at his side._

_“I don’t know,” Steve hears himself say, “but it’s here now so let’s give it what we’ve got.”_

_There is no room for avoidance; towering icebergs jut out from the dark water and promise a quick sink for any ship foolish enough to tempt them. The Fire Nation boat has positioned itself so that the only option is to fight, and Steve will not back down. The two ships pull up alongside one another, and in a flash of red and blue the battle begins. Steve can feel the heat of the fire as he narrowly avoids a blast, slinging a fan of ice and wind back. He looks up at the sound of Bucky’s laughter, brash and defiant as he uses the deposit of rock on board the ship to his disposal. He knocks one man down, then another, and then his eyes meet Steve’s. Steve wants to tell him to stop, to duck, but no words come out._

_“When this is all over-“ Bucky starts to say, but then the fire hits and Bucky and the men surrounding him are gone, leaving nothing but scorched metal and Steve’s screams behind._

“BUCKY!” Steve shoots up, his hands outstretched like he’s grabbing for something. He’s breathing hard, and sweat covers his forehead despite the cold temperature. Bucky and the battle and the cold water… For a second Steve thinks it was just a horrible dream, but then with a shudder he realizes that it was a memory. Two days ago for Steve, 70 years ago for the rest of the world. Steve runs his fingers through his long blond hair and then pushes the heels of his hands into his eyes. He is Steve Rogers. He is the Avatar. He was rescued from an iceberg yesterday, and then taken back to the North Pole. He needs to get out of bed.

\---

Despite the squid, the dinner last night had been lovely, if not slightly overwhelming. A great waterbending show had been put on, and Steve was delighted to see that over half of the performers were female.

“Peggy would love this, you know she-“

“Was the first woman to be trained as more than a healer, believe me Avatar Steve, I know.” Chief Hill’s gaze was focused on the show in front of them, “I… We owe a lot to Peggy Carter. She opened the door for many young female benders, she’s the reason I was able to become Chief.” It hurt to hear Peggy referred to in the past tense, but Chief Hill’s words caused warmth to bloom in Steve’s chest. That was the Peggy he knew, never taking no for an answer, breaking boundaries wherever she went. He missed her terribly.

Afterwards, Chief Hill had told him to follow a man named Quartermaine to his quarters for the night.

“We’re glad to have you with us, Avatar.” She had said, but somehow her tone hadn’t convinced Steve.

Steve followed Quartermaine through the icy pathways of the tribe. He wanted to say that he had just been here a couple days ago, and that he knew the pathways and waterways of the tribe like the back of his hand thanks to his years spent studying waterbending there, but he knew that 70s years could change a lot.  He saw a buildings and streets that weren’t there last week, and the electric lights above were as disconcerting as they were beautiful. Eventually however, the streets became familiar again and after a moment more Steve knew where they were headed.

Sure enough, they stopped in front of a familiar room, and even though Steve knew of his destination half a block ago, he still felt his breath catch in his throat. It was the room where he had stayed before, when he was studying waterbending under Sifu Erskine, when he met Peggy for the first time, when the Fire Nation attacked and Sifu Erskine was killed and Peggy had been the only one who could talk him down from the Avatar state. It was the room he had stayed in last week, until he and Bucky had received their marching orders.

“General Fury seemed to think you would be most comfortable here.” Quartermaine said, clearly feeling a bit awkward about Steve’s silence.

“Yes I- yes. Thank you.” Quartermaine bowed and departed quickly, leaving Steve alone in front of the lodging. Steve took a deep breath, and then stepped inside. It wasn’t exactly as he had left it, there was a light hanging from the ceiling now, and the furs on the ground had clearly been changed, but it was pretty damn close. Steve shuffled forward for a couple steps before collapsing on his sleeping furs with a hard thump. He didn’t bother to take off his boots, he just clutched the furs closer, inhaled their familiar set of cold and musk, and thought that maybe if he wished hard enough, he could see Peggy in the morning.

\---

            Steve pushes himself off of the bed and looks around. He knew it was the same room the night before, but in the daylight the similarities are almost scary. It’s like he’s 16 again and waking up to another exciting day of waterbending training. Steve brings himself to his full height, stretches, and feels a series of satisfying pops in his back. Being in an iceberg for 70 years can leave you with such a crick in the neck. He looks around for his discarded parka, and finds that someone has left fresh clothes and a bucket of water for washing up.

            Steve looks at the clothes and has the irrational desire to never change again. Why should he give up his uniform? It’s one of the few things that stayed with him, an accidental comfort that Steve would love to cling to. However Steve pushes these thoughts away with a shake of his head. His clothes are covered in burns and dirt, having never been changed or washed since that battle with the Fire Nation, and no matter what comfort these particular garments might bring Steve, it’s not really an excuse to walk around in ruined clothes. He strips and cleans himself quickly, then puts on the new clothes. They feel… odd, foreign; the cut is different, the way the pants hug his waist is wrong, and the set of the shoulders is a little off-putting. There’s no question that they fit, but it’s a different kind of fit than what Steve is used to. Well, at least his boots are the same.

            Steve has just finished tying his hair up in its familiar bun when he hears Quartermaine’s voice tentatively call from outside the room.

            “Avatar Steve? General Fury and Chief Hill are requesting your presence immediately.”

            “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

            “Can you find the Palace?”

            “Yes,” Steve pushes aside the fur and steps out into the light, “I think I’ll be just fine. You’re free to go Quatermaine, thank you for your help.” Quartermaine bows once again – Steve wants to tell him to stop that – and then dashes off. Steve begins taking the familiar route to the Palace, and is relieved to find that it hasn’t changed. He doesn’t know if he could handle the embarrassment of getting lost right now. He notices that there aren’t many people out this morning, but the few he passes smile and nod in his direction. It’s reassuring, in a way, that common courtesy hasn’t gone out the window while Steve was gone.

Steve walks into the meeting hall to see General Fury, Chief Hill, Stark, Phil, and two more people he doesn’t know seated around a table. One is a red headed woman, but different from the one Stark was talking to last night. Next to her sits a man who is maybe a few years older than Steve. His hair is short and the red mark on his face means…

“A YuYan archer!” Steve can’t help the outburst; the last time he saw one of these guys it was at the other end of an arrow aimed at Steve’s head. The man just gives Steve a cocky grin.

“Good to know that the Avatar never forgot us.”  

“Hard to forget a group of men who pinned you to a tree and tried to kill you… though now that I think about it that happened to me way more often than I’m comfortable with.” Steve ponders this as he sits down at the table. Really, he knows he’s the Avatar but it is bizarre how many times he had narrowly escaped death in his 22 years.

“How did you get out of that one?” Phil’s voice is bright and eager, like a little boy asking for another bed time story.

“I-“ Steve catches the scowl the archer gives him, the roll of Stark’s eyes, and the ‘what the fuck are you doing we have things to discuss’ set of Fury’s mouth. “I think that’s a story for another time.” His words cause Phil to blush and clear his throat.

“Right, of course. General Fury?”

“Avatar Steve, allow me to introduce you to Natasha,” he says, indicating the red headed woman to his right. She sends a small smile Steve’s way.

“A pleasure, Avatar.”

“The pleasure is mine ma’am.”

“And you’ve met Clint.” Fury doesn’t bother pointing to the archer, so Clint waves cheekily and sends a wink in Steve’s direction.

“Stop that.” Phil voice is stern, but Steve doesn’t miss the subtle shift in Phil’s posture; as if he’s annoyed but with a lingering of fondness there as well. The two must be friends, Steve decides. Silence reigns over the room for a moment, and Steve wants to ask why Natasha and Clint were even called to this meeting, but he knows better than to accidentally insult someone at a war table –

No. It’s not a war table anymore.

“So Fury, are we going to get this show on the road?” Stark pauses, “Or the water, I suppose?” What is he talking about?

“Thank you Stark.” General Fury sounds anything but thankful. “Avatar Steve, Mr. Stark has _kindly offered_ the use of his boat to take you to Omashu, and then on to the Fire Nation to finish your training.” Steve perks up at this information. Stark offered? Wow that’s… unexpected, to say the least. He’s about to say something about Stark being very generous, about how he hopes they’ll be able to work well together in the future, but then Steve catches the look between Fury and Stark and he realizes that “kindly offered” was probably the wrong phrase. More like “was forced into offering”.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to bother Mr. Stark. I’m sure I could find another ride…”

“No please,” Stark grits out, “I insist. I have business in Omashu, and then I live in the Fire Nation. This is just my trip home.” And Steve is really just too tired to argue with this. As long as he gets to the Fire Nation, it shouldn’t be a problem. But that doesn’t solve the mystery of Natasha and Clint, unless the YuYan archers have suddenly become world important world leaders in the past 70 years which, given what Steve remembers of the group, isn’t likely. Fury must see the question on his face, because he immediately supplies the answer.

“Natasha and Clint will be accompanying you.” Which causes Steve to frown.

“I don’t need babysitters.“

“They won’t be babysitting you; they have their own business to attend to along the way. Stark’s ship is just a convenient transport.” Which Steve wants to argue with, because he isn’t sure how true that is and he’s already spent the past several years of his life being told what to do by people who thought they knew what was best for the Avatar, but in those years he learned how to bite his tongue and wait, how to jump at the important opportunities and achieve the outcome he needs, so he just nods.

“When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning, at first light.”

“First light… of the sun?” Stark makes a face, “Yeah sorry, that’s not going to work for me. Unlike the Avatar, some of us haven’t had 70 years to catch up on our beauty sleep, and no offense but Clint looks he could use all the help he can get.”

“You saying I’m not beautiful Stark?”

“I’m saying that the red mark on your face doesn’t accentuate your features so much as hide them.”

“Hey, I can put on makeup better than Natasha even!” Natasha spares Clint a smirk and he backtracks, “Or well, maybe not better. But I know what I’m doing.”

“You leave.” Fury says again, “At first light. Am I clear?”

“Brows, lashes, lips. Frame the face. That’s all I’m saying.” Clint mutters as the rest of the heads at the table nod in agreement and Steve wonders what exactly he’s getting into. That seems to be the end of the meeting, as everyone at the table is already getting up to leave. Steve sees Chief Hill slip out the door before Steve can even think about speaking to her, so he turns to Natasha who, judging by her clothes is a Water Tribe member.

“Excuse me, Natasha.” He reaches out his hand to catch her shoulder, but she spins around and puts a step between them before he is able to.

“Yes?”

“I know that here in the North Pole the dead are put at sea instead of buried, but I was wondering if there was anywhere I could-“

“Pay your respects.” She finishes for him, and looks at him levelly. “There is a monument for Sifu Peggy just outside the walls of the city.” Steve just stares at her, unsure of how to respond. “That is who you wish to see, right?” Steve has no idea how she knows that, but it’s not really important right now. For all he knows, his brief romance with the waterbender was just another part of the Avatar legend, like riding a saber tooth moose lion.

“Yes. It is.”

“I can take you there, if you would like.”

“I would be very grateful.”

They stop briefly to pick Harley up, although it seems that he was rather enjoying being pampered by the caribou tenders, and then the two walk in silence for a while. Steve takes the time to observe the way his new companion moves. Off-handedly Natasha walks as if she’s nobody’s business; soft, flirtatious, and carefree all at once. However Steve notices the subtle shifts of her eyes and the tenses of her hands, the way she scans her surroundings and leaves no footprints in the snow. They approach what appears to be a dead end and before Steve can even think to lift a finger Natasha has raised her arms and created a pathway going right through the thick walls of the city.

“Shortcut.” Is all she says, and Steve thinks that babysitter or not he is glad to have her on his side.

“So you’re a waterbender then. Were you ever trained by Peggy?” Steve asks, and he hopes that the desperation doesn’t drown out the question.

“I’m not exactly from here, so unfortunately I never got the chance to meet her.”

“Oh, Southern Water Tribe then?”

“Something like that. We’re here.”

They stop just outside the wall of the city, and sure enough there is a large statue of Peggy that definitely wasn’t there 70 years ago. Statue-Peggy is older than the Peggy that Steve knew; her maturity is written in the set of her mouth and the fold of her hands. Steve wishes he could have been there to see those changes occur, wishes that he could have seen Peggy get her first gray and start wearing her hair up more often than down, as the older women of the tribe often did. He wishes he could have seen her grow as a teacher, he’s sure she must’ve been amazing. Whenever Sifu Erskine explained a new concept that he didn’t grasp immediately, Peggy was always there to help him.

_“It’s a push and pull motion Steve. You are the moon, bringing the tide in. Yes, back and forth, just like that. No, lower your elbow.”_

_“The water just isn’t cooperating!”_

_“Steve this isn’t earthbending, you need to be fluid, gentle. If you tighten your fingers around water, all it does is escape.”_

There are other people at the monument as well, women and men who probably had Peggy as a teacher. Steve widens his eyes in surprise when he sees one wearing a familiar blue necklace.

“So the engagement necklaces are still a practice upheld by the tribe?”

“As far as I know.” Natasha raises an eyebrow in reaction to Steve’s inquiry.

“I was thinking about giving one to Peggy before the war, but I never did.”

“Why not?”

“Peggy would not have appreciated it.” Steve replies, a small smile on his face as he remembers her outburst when he talked to her about the tradition.

_“They’re like polarbear dog collars Steve! It’s as if the man is claiming ownership over the woman!”_

_“No Peggy, it’s a romantic gesture. He’s making something unique for her.”_

_“If he really wants to be unique, he’ll treat her like an equal. But you’ll never find a man like that in this tribe.”_

            Steve chuckles at the memory, and wonders if Peggy ever did receive a necklace from someone. He wonders if she said yes.

            “I’m told that she did eventually marry,” Natasha says, using her scary mind-reading trick again, “and he was apparently very well liked.” Steve lets out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding. Good. She hadn’t waited for him. He can only hope that her husband was every bit the man Peggy deserved. “They never had children, but she has a niece living in the Southern Water Tribe.”

            “Did you know her?”

            “No I… I haven’t been back in a long time.”

            “Oh.” Steve pauses for a moment, “Do you think I could have a moment alone? No offense I just-“

            “I understand.” Natasha offers him a small smile and tentatively places her hand on his shoulder before walking away. Steve watches her go and then faces the statue again. He rubs his hand absentmindedly on Harley’s fur and starts talking.

            “Peggy… I… I miss you. I know it’s ridiculous, because I saw you just a couple days ago but that was decades ago and now there are light bulbs and female benders, which I am so proud of you for, and there’s this man named Stark, and he’s kind of an asshole but he made his own bending! And oh Peggy,” Steve has to stop talking for a second and close his eyes until they stop watering because he cannot, he will not cry. Peggy never liked it when he felt sorry for himself. Harley shifts and nuzzles Steve’s side gently, giving Steve the strength to continue. “I just… I’m not sure who I can trust anymore.” That was always the problem with being the Avatar; everyone had an agenda when it came to Steve, but at least he had had Bucky and Peggy and the Commandos. He knew there were people he could count on to have his back, but they were all gone now. He would just have to trust his instincts now. “I’m glad you found someone else though, I’m glad you didn’t wait, because I would hate myself if I did that to you. I hope he was unique.” Steve takes one more shuddering breath before continuing, “I will always love you, Peggy Carter, and I hope to see you in the Spirit World one day. Say hello to Sifu Erskine for me.”

            Steve would be lying if he said he hadn’t hoped from some message from Peggy, he is the bridge between the two worlds after all, but the air remains silent and so Steve turns around and nods to Natasha. He has said what he needed to say, he’s done here.

\---

            They end up leaving an hour or so after first light because nobody could find Stark for 20 minutes, which sent General Fury into a fit until Steve remembered the workshop at the base of the ship and there was Tony, fiddling with the same machine as last time and looking annoyed at being interrupted.

            “Hey! You said be on the ship by first light and I was on this ship by first light! Honestly the nerve of some people, you can’t just change your instructions the next day! You’re not _me._ ”

            Steve notices that a couple of parts on the machine have been changed since he last saw it, and he wonders how long Stark had spent working on it the night before. Judging by the deep circles under the man’s eyes, he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.

            The whole tribe comes to the docks to see them off, there’s a banner and waterbending and children waving from atop their parent’s shoulders. Steve smiles and waves back like a good Avatar, then heads to the bow of the ship, where he’s found he’s most comfortable. Up there he finds Phil, Clint, and Natasha with their heads bent in a discussion. Upon seeing Steve they look up and smile.

            “Hey Avatar! I was just telling Phil and Natasha that we really oughta stop at Kangaroo Island. I hear that place is hopping.” Steve smiles blandly while Clint cracks up at his own joke. Natasha and Phil don’t even pay him the courtesy, and instead just roll their eyes.

            “I’m sure the Avatar would rather ride the giant koi fish than see a bunch of kangaroos.”

            “I’m sure the Avatar would rather just get to Omashu.”

            “The Avatar,” Steve starts, “would rather that you call him Steve. Please. It’s um, beginning to make me a little uncomfortable that no one has really called me by my name since I woke up.” He sees Clint brighten and Coulson turn a bit red at the privilege.

            “All right, Steve it is then.”

            Steve doesn’t know if he can trust these people yet, he doesn’t know what Fury’s agenda is, or how he’s going to deal with Stark, but if he can smile at least once a day, then maybe it won’t be so bad.

            “But seriously, kangaroos or koi? I don’t know about you, but riding a giant koi sounds a little… fishy to me… Oh fuck you guys, I’m funny.”

\---

“Do you really think it will work?”

Fury trains his good eye on Hill as the ship begins to disappear on the horizon.

“It has to work, Chief Hill. The world needs them together.”

*

*

*

*

*

*

Look! A really kind anon drew me fanart on tumblr!

[Steve with Harley](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5w90kvbmA1roth60o1_1280.png) and [Air Nomad Phil](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5s4bbVOqD1roth60o1_1280.png)

to that anon, once again, you are amazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I hope you liked the last chapter. Right so. Notes.  
> It's a really good thing that I'm watching through a:tla again right now because I forgot just how sexist the Northern Water Tribe was.  
> That lashes, lips, brow line was actually said by Jeremy Renner in an interview with Ellen  
> Quartermaine is a shout out to Agent Quartermaine in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes TV show. Because I kinda love that guy.  
> Look! Clint and Natasha showed up! Hooray! Bruce will be popping up in a little while too, and unfortunately Thor will be the last to join the group and it won't be for a little while but I PROMISE he will join and be super important and yadda yadda yadda.  
> Also if anyone was disappointed by the lack of Tony in this episode, all I can say is I'm sorry and I promise now that they're all living on a ship together he and Steve will talk more.
> 
> any comments, questions, complaints - you know what to do


	4. The Dying Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of you keep telling me that you like this fic. Which is. Thank you. Because. Yes. Thanks. I'm glad I can produce something worthwhile.  
> Okey Dokey! Here we go! Hope you enjoy!  
> Also you can thank Brian K. Vaughan, writer of the amazing comic series Saga (read it) for kicking my ass in the letters pages and prompting me to do serious work on this chapter.

            The past week onboard the ship had been mostly pleasant. Upon boarding, Steve met Happy, the pilot who would definitely not sail into shark squid infested waters, and Pepper. Steve wasn’t quite sure what her relationship with Stark was, except that it was somehow related to his business. It was Pepper who made sure that Stark looked at every telegram they received, ate, washed, and “No Tony, we can’t sail to Kangaroo Island, no matter what Clint said. That’s 500 miles out of our way and you _do_ have a meeting to get to. Tony I said no.”

            Stark continued to spend most of his time tinkering in his workshop downstairs, but occasionally Steve would see him topside. Steve couldn’t get a reading on the other man, half the time he was as bright and lively as a flame; bright and lively, always handy with a joke or a smile, and the other half he was as prickly as a boarcupine; egotistical and selfish in Steve’s opinion, always ready with a snarky remark or a roll of his eyes. He seemed to get along better with the others, and there were days when he never came outside at all. Pepper told him not to take it personally, “Don’t worry about Tony, he gets like this when he’s working on a big project,” but Steve was never so sure. He kept meaning to say something to Stark about it, something to make this bizarre team of theirs work, but every time he was about to bring it up they’d end up fighting, or the dark haired man would get a faraway look in his eyes and excuse himself back downstairs. It was infuriating.

            There were other people on the boat besides Stark anyways, and Steve spent most of his time meditating with Phil, or sparring with Natasha and Clint. Their fights were so carefree and effortless, far from the calls to battle and frantic teachings Steve had gotten used to in the past few years of his life. It reminded him of his time learning earthbending with Bucky, there had been no urgency to their training, no goal other than improvement. Steve had missed the way the two of them could spend an entire day doing nothing but throwing their bodies around and learning the feel of the earth.

            This time now, on the sunny deck of the ship with nothing to do but whip water and toss punches, was as close as Steve had come to that feeling in the past 7 years. In some ways it was better; the intricate dance Steve often found himself in with Natasha and Clint was light-years ahead of the rough movements he and Bucky had grown up with. Natasha was like water itself, constantly changing and impossible to grasp. Steve would have her on the ropes one minute, and the next he would be flat on his back watching Natasha toss her bright red hair back. Clint, not only a master archer but handy with pretty much whatever weapon you gave him, moved with a wild precision. Every strike was a decision, and no matter what Steve sent his way he always found his mark. Steve had met few other people with such impressive skill, and he was glad for the chance to work with them. He was sharpening his abilities, and remembering not to rely on his bending.

             “You’re helping each other you know,” Phil said, his eyes closed and his hands pushed together as the two meditated on the bow. “Clint is finally starting to stop favoring his left side because you keep attacking it, and I don’t think anyone has ever caught Natasha in the air like that before.”

             “You pay attention to our fights?” Steve doesn’t mean to sound surprised, he knows that the air nomads are formidable fighters, and he’s noticed from Phil’s few displays of airbending that he’s a powerful opponent. However Phil never seemed that interested in the sparring before.

             “Of course I do. You might want to work on your left arm, sometimes you raise it like you expect the earth to follow. Don’t forget your surroundings.”

             It was Steve’s signature move, forming a shield of earth around his left arm, and then throwing the disc at his opponents. Unfortunately, no earth meant no shield, and though he was now trying to replicate it with air and ice it wasn’t quite the same. Effective sure, but not as satisfying.

             Being onboard a metal ship in the middle of the sea, the feel of the earth was something that Steve longed for at night. Once they were past the frigid waters of the North Pole, he could see that it was early spring and while the warmer weather was certainly welcome, it made Steve miss the blooming of lotus flowers, the smell of new grass, and the earth’s gradual awakening. It was worse now that they could see land in the distance, and Steve could practically taste the dirt on his tongue - a taste he was quite familiar with, after years of getting his face kicked into the ground in the alleys of Omashu. He wasn’t going to say anything of course. He was a guest on this ship, and it wasn’t going to be late for Stark’s meeting in Omashu because of _him._ So when he’s meditating with Phil on the bow of the ship and Pepper approaches them to say,

             “The ship is going to need to stop for some supplies and refueling tomorrow. It should just take a couple hours, we can’t afford to get off-schedule, but there will be time for a walk around the town,”

            Steve is more than a little elated.

            “Someone’s in a good mood.” Stark comments as he came up on deck. “Did the big moose have kittens or something?” Harley snorts in reply, and Steve rolls his eyes, but doesn’t rise to the bait.

            “We’re going to be docking tomorrow, and walking on dry land! There’s going to be earth!” Even Stark’s sarcasm can’t get him down.

            “I thought the Avatar didn’t get to play favorites.” Clint is just teasing, but he does have a point.

            “Oh, of course. Each element is equally important, in order to create a balance in the world. As the Avatar, it’s my duty to make sure that this balance is maintained. No element is more important to me than any other.” Steve pauses and tries to decide how to phrase this, “It’s just that… well…”

            “Nothing compares to your first love,” Natasha fills in, and Steve nods in agreement. The earth was his home, his shield. It had remained in a way that no one else had. Or at least, no one else besides Harley. He looks back to Stark and sees the man’s eyes go soft for a second, but then Stark catches his look and his gaze is suddenly shuttered, his grin sly.

            “I don’t know much about love, but I can tell you that my first time with Lee was amazing. Now that girl had a set of lips...”

            “Stark.” Steve’s frown does nothing to deter Stark from continuing.

            “Or was it her sister Lo… Well whoever it was they knew what they were doing. Hey don’t give me that look! Human sexuality is a beautiful thing!”

\---

            Steve steps onto land and immediately his senses are overwhelmed. Just the feel of it, sure and steady under his feet, teaming with life and growth, is enough to make him stop immediately and breath. It’s a breath of air in space, a glass of water in the desert, it is everything Steve has been longing for since he woke up and before he knows it the earth is rolling and contorting around him, dirt surrounding his left arm while his right arm lifts boulders high.

            “Watch it there Sandman!” Stark barks as he sidesteps on of the boulders. He’s clutching a shopping list in one hand and a basket in the other, his metal gloves and boots are both on, and the goggles are slightly tangled in his black hair, causing him to look more than a little ridiculous. Steve wants to maybe suggest that he change out of his grease stained clothes, but he’s sure that the suggestion will go unbidden. “Alright, where is this marketplace?”

            The market turns out to be just a little ways away from the dock, and the group has no problem finding it quickly. However it’s not exactly bustling, and Stark’s grungy outfit seems to fit in more than stand out. The people that are there are quiet, sending nervous glances towards the newcomers. The goods they’re selling are sparse, and the only thing more run down than the stalls are the surrounding buildings. It’s not the same type of poverty that Steve grew up with, a dirty, take no prisoners type on the busy streets of Omashu, where if you lived fast enough you could get dinner for the evening. It’s a rural poverty, a desolate poverty. It’s a small town breathing its last breath, and it hurts to look at. Steve turns to face Stark and sees the man making a face at the sight before him, but then something catches his eye and he’s rushing over to a booth. Natasha is at another booth, picking up a wilting head of lettuce and frowning mildly. She holds it out to Clint who shrugs.

            “Hey, I’ve seen worse.” He points to the next booth, where a paltry bunch of carrots sit. They look uncannily like shriveled human bodies and it gives Steve the willies. They look around for a bit longer, Steve was hoping to see a booth with some fresh paper and ink but honestly he shouldn’t really expect something from a town like this. They buy what they can, because they have to do something, and then head back towards the dock. Clint is munching thoughtfully on one of the people carrots. “You know, they’re really not so bad.” Stark takes one look at them and curls his lips.

            “They could probably find a real market selling those things to healthy serial killers. People carrots – all the fun of bloodlust without the calories!”

            “Oh your fancy digestive system is just too sensitive from all of the caviar you’re used to. Natasha will have one!”

            “I’m not going to explain your food poisoning to Phil,” Natasha replies as she pointedly avoids the carrots. Steve smiles wanly but remains quiet.

“Hey,” Natasha bumps him lightly on the shoulder, “You okay?” Steve looks up in surprise, he wasn’t aware that he’d been acting that differently. But then, if anyone would notice it’d be Natasha.

            “Thanks, I’m fine.” He tries to smile, but Natasha’s critical gaze stays. “I just wish we could have helped those people more. I’m the Avatar, I should have done something!” He sees Natasha and Clint trade looks.

            “Steve…” Natasha begins, but Stark cuts her off.

            “What would you have done, exactly? Given them all the money you have? That wouldn’t have fixed their economy. Unfortunately, as the wheel of industry turns, all of the jobs head to big cities. Towns like this are unfortunate, but a dime a dozen. ”

            “And you know all about the wheel of industry, don’t you.”

            “As a matter of fact,” Stark states calmly, shifting his basket of odds and ends to his other hand, “I do.”

            “We’ve done what we can by refueling here, and purchasing goods at their market place,” Natasha says, “anything more is up to them,” and Steve knows she’s right.

             Eventually they return to the ship and load up their parcels. Phil throws the bundle of people carrots overboard.

             “I’m a vegetarian, Clint.”

             “Those were vegetables! They were carrots!”

             “Were they?”

             “That’s it,” Clint clutches his fists at his side, “I challenge you to an agni kai! For the honor of my people- I mean carrots. My carrots.”

             “You know,” Stark butts in, “That neither of you are firebenders. So you can’t have an agni kai.”

             “No, we can’t,” Phil is standing, rolling his head from one shoulder to another and producing a series of pops, “but I could use the practice. How long has it been since I beat you in a fight Clint?”

             “That only happened in your dreams Phil,” Clint’s smile is wicked, his eyes are dancing, “let’s do this thing.”

             “No. Not on the ship. It’s refueling – I don’t you using one of those flaming arrows and blowing something up.”

             “I would never-“

             “Do I need to remind you of that incident in the Fire Nation 2 years ago?”

             “Well okay, but that was an active volcano. I don’t think you can blame me for that one.”

             “Anyways, you need to practice with new surroundings. You’re getting too used to the vantage points around here.”

             They walk away from the dock in the opposite direction of the marketplace, and find a nice secluded field peppered with trees. Clint brandishes two Sais and immediately begins running at Phil. With a simple circle step, Phil ends up behind Clint and with a swift hand shoves him into the ground, however Clint catches himself into a push up and suddenly there are small knives coming out of the toe of his boots, dangerously close to Phil’s face. Phil knocks Clint into a foreword roll with a gust of air, and there is a pause as the two men stare at each other from across the field, before Phil is moving and sending tunnel after tunnel of air towards the archer. Clint does several impressive backflips to dodge, and then he’s throwing several projectiles at Phil. Phil sends a gust of wind to block them, but Clint takes that moment to kick up dirt into the air nomad’s eyes.

             “That’s fighting dirty.” Steve whispers, but Natasha just shakes her head.

             “That’s how they play together. They’re like armadillo wolf puppies.” True enough, Phil is grinning as he uses air to get the dirt out of his eyes

             “The way they fight – it’s like they know each other’s every move. I don’t think Phil was even surprised by the dirt.”

             “They’ve been working together for a long time. They were together when I joined the organization. ”

             “So you don’t only look for the Avatar then.”

             “Of course not, uh, no offense. We keep track of things, try to maintain peace and balance. We are an organization founded on the Avatar’s ideals.”

             The fight continues for a while, wind and weapons a frenzied flurry on the grass below. Eventually it ends with arrows trapping Phil’s pant cuffs to the ground, and Phil’s arm raised in a killing blow above Clint’s hand. They stay there for a second, heat radiating from their eyes, before Clint smiles and plucks the arrows out of the ground, freeing Phil.

             “I won that round.”

             “In your dreams, Clint.”

             “That’s not what I dream about.”

             The two make their way back to where Steve, Natasha, Stark, and Harley are sitting. Clint collapses on the ground, his skin slick with sweat and his hair sticking up at odd angles. Phil gracefully sits on a rock, and immediately folds into a meditation pose – it’s probably second nature by now.

             "You know Clint, I remember when I fought the YuYan archers I was really surprised that they were able to pin me so quickly.” Steve comments, eyeing Clint’s bow.

             “Well thanks for that,” Clint replies sarcastically.

             “No it’s just that – I would assume that you’d miss, if Phil used his airbending to redirect the arrows.”

             “Okay one,” Clint says, pushing himself up off of the ground, “I never miss. Ever. And two, Phil can direct my arrow any day.” He waggles his eyebrows at Phil who rolls his eyes in response. Steve smiles.

             “Oh, so you’ve used it as a battle strategy before.”

             “Great spirits you have got to be kidding me,” Stark mutters and Steve is about to respond when they hear a high-pitched scream. Steve is on his feet and then hopping onto Harley’s back immediately. Phil whips out his glider and the two look at the rest of the group.

             “You two go, we’ll catch up,” Natasha says, and Steve nods. The sound came from the west, so they head towards the sun. They arrive at a terrible sight; a tiny cottage with a man weeping in front, his wife at his side looking accusingly into the distance, what used to be a clothesline hung with drying laundry is now lying on the ground in an ashen heap at her feet.  She turns to face Steve and Clint,

            “If you’re more raiders, you’re too late. Your friends already left.”

            “They took our son!” the man sobs angrily and the couple takes a couple steps forward.

            “No we’re not raiders! I’m the Avatar.”

            “Don’t lie to me!” the man bellows, but his wife tightens her grip on his arm to keep him from going further.

            “No look, it’s true.” Steve simultaneously earthbends and airbends, causing the couples jaws to drop. “I’m back, and I want to help.”

\---

            The rest of their gang catches up pretty quickly, and then they’re in the couple’s kitchen listening to their story. The woman – Hana, offers them fresh cups of tea and they accept gratefully. Her husband, Jerome, sits on a chair in the corner, his face a mess of sorrow and rage.

            “The raiders started coming about ten years ago, when our son Maiku was just born. He’s never known a life without them, I’m afraid,” Hana collects herself for a minute before continuing, “We’ve never been a rich town, but we were getting by. Most young people would move to the city, but some would stay here. We were a fair destination for small ships coming in from the North Pole. It looked like we were going to make it… until the raiders came. They killed the head of our village, and demanded that we make payments to them, or they would…” and she didn’t continue.

            “Where are your organization authorities?” Natasha’s eyes were furious, “Someone should be stationed nearby to help you, defend you!”

            “We’re too far away, they don’t bother with a pissant little town like this,” Jerome snarls as he locks eyes with Steve, “nobody has been here to help.”

            “We’ll get your son back,” Steve promises.

            “Please.”

\---

            “Pepper, we’re going to be a little late leaving-“

            “Tony you cannot be late for this meeting-“ That’s right, Steve forgot about Stark’s meeting. Yet, the other man doesn’t seem upset about it.

            “It’s important I promise, really I’m sure that they’ll understand-“

            “Tony, Cabbage Corp _never_ understands, this is the third time-“

            “I’ll send them a gift basket or something-“

            “It can’t be that you slept with the wrong person, or you’d want to leave right away-“

            “Pepper! Please,” Stark grabs his friend’s hands and looks into her eyes, “This is something we need to do, okay? A little boy has been kidnapped, so we’re about to go Team Avatar on their asses, okay? We’ll be home for dinner. Maybe.” Upon learning this information, Pepper immediately agrees, and then there’s nothing to do but wait for Phil to come back from scanning the perimeter on his glider. Natasha is sitting with Clint, her anger flooding out from the coolness of her face, and Clint himself is sharpening his knives. Steve walks over to Tony,

            “Stark, thanks for… for postponing the meeting for this.”

            “Hey, everyone knows how much I love to piss off other rich people.”

            “That’s not why you’re doing this,”

            “No,” Stark shakes his head, “it’s not.”

            Phil flies in a little bit later, and they run up to him for information.

            “They’re south of the town, in an encampment surrounded by steep cliffs. They’ve got two firebenders, an earth bender, and four other men on rhino bears.”

            “Let’s go.”

            Phil is back on his glider, with Harley carrying the rest of the party, and they reach the raiders camp just as the sun begins to go down. They remain on the cliffs, peering down from above.

            “You know,” Clint says, taking a sniper’s eye to the villains below, “it really wasn’t smart of them to take the low ground like that.”

            “I don’t think these men are exactly tactical geniuses, or they wouldn’t be robbing a town like this.” Stark replies.

            “No,” says Steve, “they’re just bullies. Clint and Phil, stay up here. Natasha, Stark, and I will draw them out. Pick off what you can, and we’ll deal with the rest. Remember though, saving the boy is our number one priority.” Clint and Phil nod in agreement, and Natasha and Stark follow Steve to the edge of the cliff. Steve moves his hand and a jut of rock shoots out, the three step onto it and it slowly begins lowering into the canyon. Eventually they hit the bottom, and Steve motions silently for them to surround the camp. There are two men around a campfire, Steve spots one of the firebenders pretty easily, as he’s the one creating the flames. He stomps his foot, and suddenly the man’s hands are encased in earth, preventing him from bending.

            “Huh?” is all he says before an arrows from above take him and his compatriot out. That noise, unfortunately, is enough to draw several other men out of their tents, and send them scurrying for their rhino bears. Steve looks at Natasha and Stark; it’s time to begin the battle. He finds himself pitted against two of the rhino bear riders, but with a couple abrupt movements he manages to knock one off of his bear. Steve calls the earth to his arm, forming his shield, and it feels _so good_. He flings it off towards the other man, and then uses a new shield to defend against the charge of the first one. He sees Natasha against the earthbender, and Stark’s gloves are doing a marvelous job of mimicking firebending against the remaining firebender.

            “Are you kidding me? My grandmother can firebend better than this!” Stark yells, before knocking his opponent unconscious. Steve smiles in return, but he’s still working on his attackers, and Natasha is doing a fair job against the earthbender but he’s not out for the count yet. It’s up to Stark.

            “Stark! Go see if you can find the boy!”

            “On it.”  

Natasha has subdued the earhtbender, and one of the rhino bear riders is down with Steve’s about to knock out the other, when Stark comes out of the last tent

            “He’s not here! The kid’s not here!”

            “What?” Steve knocks out the last rhino rider.

            “Looking for someone?” They look up and see the last of the raiders on top of a cliff ledge, holding a weeping young boy over it. The boy’s feet are barely skimming the ledge, and a fall from that height will definitely kill him. “I’ll do it, I’ll-“ in a blink, an arrow has taken the man out, and Phil grabs the boy and lowers them gently to the ground in a puff of air.

            “I told you,” Clint’s voice comes from atop the opposite cliff, “I don’t miss.” There’s a moment when they breathe freely, the boy is safe, the raiders are defeated, and then the ledge shifts, and falls. It happens before anyone is really registering it, before Steve has time to raise his arms to stop it, the rock having experienced too much with the raider’s antics and it is falling, falling – Steve can see it before him, the crush of the rock, the broken bodies of Phil and the boy lying beneath it and he’s failed, failed again. Except then a rush of air passes Steve, and it’s _Stark,_ and in a blur he grabs Phil and the boy before the rock falls, spiriting them out of the way so the rock hits nothing but earth. Clint has scaled the cliff in a heartbeat and he already has his arms around Phil. The boy is shaken and scared, but then Natasha is there, picking him up and shushing him. Stark musters a tired grin,

            “Not bad for a trial run. I think I deserve something better than those nasty people carrots after this.”

            Steve just lets out an unbelieving laugh. They’re safe.

\---

            They return Maiku to his family, Jerome weeping openly as he swings the boy around into the air.

            “If there’s anything we can do to repay you,” Hana starts, but Steve shakes his head.

            “No ma’am, but thank you.”

            “We’ll contact your organization authorities, they’ll be in a lot of trouble. New ones should be reporting in a couple weeks.” Natasha all but growls out.

            “Thank you, Avatar.” Whispers Maiku, and Steve smiles at him hesitantly. They say their goodbyes, and then leave the village.

\---

            They’re on the sea again, headed once more towards Omashu. Steve asks Pepper for Stark, and with a curious expression she tells him that he’s downstairs in his workshop. Steve wanders down and finds Stark working on the same machine again.

            “So you really are working on a big project down here.”

            “What did you think I was doing?” Stark shakes his head, “You know what, don’t answer that. It’s an engine, a bigger version of what I have in my boots. I’m going to create machines out of them one day, ostrich horseless carriages. Starkmobiles, they’ll be called. Catchy name huh?”

            “Stark-“

            “Stark Industries moto – Serve the People, and the people need transportation. I’m just having a bit of a problem with the fuel source; it’s why I’m meeting with Cabbage Corps in Omashu. I mean, I know what I _want_ to power the engines, I’m a genius – I’ve figured that part out, but I might have to go into partnership with them which you know isn’t really my idea of a good time but Pepper is really the one in charge of things like that because if it were up to me I’d just run the business into the ground… again.”

            “Stark look,”

            “You know,” and Stark finally pushes his goggles up into his hair and looks at him, “you should call me Tony. Because you’re sort of living on my ship and you’re the Avatar so this whole “Stark” business feels kind of weird. Plus it’s what board members call me, so I’m about three times as likely to ignore you if you call me that.”

            “Okay, Tony. Thank you for everything you did today. You could have died-“

            “I didn’t though,” Star- no, Tony replies, and Steve realizes that he’s _defending his actions_.

            “No,” Steve says slowly, “you didn’t. But you could have, so I’m thanking you. For helping me save that boy. Helping me save that town.”

            “You didn’t save the town,” Tony doesn’t give Steve a chance to argue with him, “You’ve just prolonged the inevitable. Economically speaking, that town has nowhere left to turn.”

            “So what, you’re saying we should just give up on them!” Steve steps forward, his voice raising and his fists clenching at his side. He won’t abandon these people, not again.

            “I’m saying,” Tony replies levelly, “that you need to learn to pick your battles. Raiders you can defeat, the tides of industry, the evolution of humanity, that’s not something even you can stop.”

            “Then…” Steve collapses in the chair next to Tony, pushing a hand through his hair, “what am I supposed to do?”

            “Give people hope, keep people safe, and win the battles you _do_ fight.”

            “Thanks Star… Thanks Tony.”

            “Anytime, Avatar.”

            “Steve. It’s Steve.”

*

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OH MY GOD THE ANON JUST DREW ME MORE FANART

[TONY USING HIS FIRE GLVOES](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6c5c4YOxS1roth60o1_1280.png)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!  
> Uh. Notes!  
> 1\. If anyone can name all of the a:tla and LoK references in here, you get a cookie  
> 2\. Rhino bears! Made 'em up!  
> 3\. Bruce will be appearing hopefully NEXT CHAPTER  
> 4\. I don't know if you can tell, but I have absolutely zero experience writing fight scenes. So those are always a joy.
> 
> questions, comments, concerns, please give them to me


	5. The Spirit of Gamma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Great Gotham's Ghost this chapter is long. The more I wrote, the more I realized I needed to write for this story to play out well. It was a lot of fun to write, though, and I'm sort of proud of it. 
> 
> WARNINGS for mentions of child abuse, and attempted suicide. 
> 
> I hope you continue to enjoy!!!

            It had only been a few days since the raiders, but already it felt like a tension had been lifted from the atmosphere of the boat. Steve wasn’t sure if he and Tony were in the beginnings of a friendship, or if this was just a détente, but regardless it felt nice. Did Tony still occasionally make Steve angry? Of course, because his offhand comments and flippant nature hadn’t magically disappeared overnight, they were a part of who the man was and they were as opposite to Steve as could be. Steve just had to remind himself that there was more to Stark than that, and he shouldn’t respond with the anger he sometimes felt bubbling in his veins.

            Steve had seen something more to the inventor’s character the other day; he didn’t think that Tony was the lazy rich genius he had been making himself out to be. He had principles, even if they were hard to see, and he didn’t take his status or his intellect for granted. Now that Steve could really see how much work Tony had put into that engine, he was nothing short of amazed. The new sides of Tony didn’t end there either. Steve had asked Pepper about when their next refueling stop would be, explaining that he was eager to look at another marketplace for paper and ink. The next day, Tony shoved a box of paper, brushes, and a bottle of ink at him.

            “I have a lot down in the work shop – what else am I going to draw up my schematics on? It’s fine if you take some.”

            “No, Tony, I can’t-“

            “If you don’t use it, it’ll just go to waste. Seriously. I’ll throw it overboard if that’s what you want but…”

            So Steve took the paper and ink, and was currently drawing painting a snoozing Harley.

            “I never heard that the Avatar was an artist,” Clint says as he peers over Steve’ shoulder at the paper.

“The legends can’t get everything right,” Steve shrugs and puts the paper down, “it was something I used to do as a kid. I couldn’t earthbend very well, but I could trace lines in the dirt, or scrape charcoal against a wall. It wasn’t something I had a lot of time for after the whole Avatar thing, but when I was learning armed combat, my master highly encouraged it.”

            “Painting can teach a warrior to hold the lay of the land in her mind. In battle, you are only given a second to assess your surroundings, and the situation.” Natasha explains, swooping in silently next to Clint. Steve nods eagerly.

            “Yes! That’s just what he used to say.” Steve blinks for a second; actually that was _exactly_ what his master used to say. Huh. Clint just snorts in response. 

            “Well excuse me for never having a fancy master. All I ever got was, ‘Clint! Make that shot or you’re cleaning up after the platypus bears tonight!’ That bastard.” Clint looks thoughtful for a second, “It worked though; you weren’t going to catch me cleaning up after those bears.”

            “I guess it wasn’t all fun and games, growing up in a circus.” Once, when Steve and Bucky were about 10, the circus had pulled into Omashu. They didn’t have the money to see it, but Bucky had snuck them in and for weeks afterwards they had planned to run away and join it. They never packed their bags or anything, but at the time a life swinging from the trapeze seemed a hell of a lot nicer than scrounging together coins for a meal, or in Bucky’s case just stealing it. 

            “No,” Clint’s mouth is a hard line, “it wasn’t.” and he doesn’t volunteer any more information on the subject. He and Natasha instead watch silently for a few moments while Steve goes back to his painting. It’s been a while, but the calming back and forth of his brushstrokes feel just the same and he feels a small smile leak out onto his face.

            “Woah hey,” Steve doesn’t look up to the sound of Stark’s voice,  but he sees the silhouette of the man’s profile fall across his paper, “you know what? That’s actually not bad. Those years in the ice have not cramped your style. I’m sure the moose will hang it on his antlers.”

            “That’s a harder task than you’d think; Harley is a real art critic,” Steve deadpans and he knows Tony takes a second to figure out if he’s telling the truth or not.

           “Is there a reason you’ve graced us with your presence at,” Clint stares at the sun for a quick second, “wow, 11 in the morning! Someone is getting an early start to the day.” Clint is only half serious; they’ve all come to realize that it’s not that Tony sleeps in so much as he doesn’t understand the concept of a regular biological clock. Circadian rhythms mean nothing to him.

            “Yeah,” Tony digs his hand into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper, “telegram came in for you guys. Technically it’s supposed to be delivered to Phil, but he’s in a pretty deep trance right now and I am frankly too scared to wake him.”

            “As you should be,” Tony jumps at the sound of Phil’s voice right behind him.

            “Fuck! See, no, this is why I never wanted to get involved with you people. Coming out of fucking nowhere-”

            “The telegram, Stark.”

            “-and scaring innocent people to death. Give me a heart attack why don’t you!” At this point Natasha swipes the telegram from Tony’s hand, and pointedly gives it over to Phil. His eyes scan the note briefly before flipping back up to Tony.

            “We need-“

            “I know, I know,” Tony waves his hand dismissively in Phil’s direction, “You have a mission in the next town, I already told Pepper and she said we’re clear to land. She had postponed the meeting a few extra days after the last time. She didn’t seem that mad… though I did have to promise her a week’s paid vacation in my summer home at Ember Island…”

            “That telegram was classified information.” Phil’s voice is tempered, but edged with the frustration that only comes from dealing with Tony for extended periods of time.

            “Woops, it accidentally fell open,” Tony leers, clearly challenging Phil to contradict him. Phil turns to Natasha and Clint, but they just shrug.

            “Honestly Phil, you’re not exactly dealing with the most obedient of agents here,” Clint smirks.

            “Plus you have to admit, it’s more efficient this way,” Natasha adds. Phil just rubs the arrow on his forehead in response, a gesture Steve has noticed he does whenever he’s particularly exasperated.

            “What did the note actually say?” Steve asks, because everyone else seems to be in a loop that doesn’t include him.

            “There has been…” Phil hesitates for a second, “a problem in a nearby town. In a couple nearby towns. A spiritual one, so the Avatar has been called in.” Steve perks up at this. They need him, they need the Avatar. He can do this. He was born to do this. He needs to do this… whatever it is.

\---

            The town is farther inland, so Steve earthbends a dock for the boat, and from there they venture forth. They leave early in the morning, because Phil had warned that it would be at least a day’s walk to the town. It’s unusually hot for spring, and once heat of the sun really hits it doesn’t take long for Tony to start complaining, followed by Clint.

            “Remind me to build fans into the gloves, because I am sweating like a sheep-pig in front of the butcher’s block.”

            “Natasha please, please hit me with a blast of ice. Or Steve. I’m not picky, really.”

            Several hours into their walk, even Steve can feel a couple beads of sweat beginning to drip down his neck. His clothes, the ones from the North Pole, are frankly far too warm for this weather and eventually he follows the example of his travel partners and strips down to his undershirt. Only Phil remains fully clothed in his air-nomad uniform. When they hit the forest, everyone is relieved. The shade of the trees and the damp musky air brings a steady calm to everyone’s nerves, and the brook in front of them looks cool and refreshing. Steve is just about to splash his face with the water, when he hears a twig snap. It could just be an animal but – another snap. Before he has even thought about moving, Natasha is grabbing a man out of the bushes by the collar, and yanking him close. The man is average sized, with tan skin and unkempt curly brown hair falling into brown eyes.

            “Can we help you, sir?” Natasha’s tone is casual, yet her hand is poised for an attack. The man raises his hands in front of his face as if he’s scared, but his breathing is even and level.

            “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just… wasn’t sure if you were friend or foe.” He peeks up at Natasha through his fingers, and she loosens her grip by a fraction.

            “Were you expecting a foe?” She raises an eyebrow, and the man just gives her a small placid smile. It almost looks sad.

            “You’d be surprised what you can find out here, in the forest. Not everyone is as friendly as they seem, also not many people travel around with saber tooth moose lions” Natasha raises her eyebrows in agreement and lets him go. The man extends his hand to her, “My name is Bruce.”

            “What are you doing out here in the woods, Bruce?” Clint asks, his suspicion written into his the jut of his hips and the curl of his fingers. Bruce shrugs.

            “I’m a traveling doctor; I was just leaving one town and heading to another. It’s the business.” Bruce replies as he rubs his hands together, as if in expectation of something. Phil frowns.

            “You’re in the wrong place if you’re looking for a town, you need to be going either west or south, and you’re headed due north-east.”

            “I… may have gotten a little mixed up; I never said I was particularly efficient at the traveling part.” Bruce gives a little what-can-you-do-about-it shrug, “So south is…”

            “That direction,” Phil says, pointing to his left. Bruce nods his thanks and begins to retreat.

            “It was… nice to meet all of you, good luck on your journey.”

            “To you as well!” Steve shouts back at Bruce’s form which is already disappearing into the mix of shadows and green. Still, something about the meeting doesn’t sit right with him, or anyone else, judging by the looks of consternation on their faces. Tony is the only one unfazed, yawning as he splashes himself with water. After another moment’s pause the rest join in too, they eat the lunches they packed and then hit the trail again.

            Being in the middle of the forest cools things down considerably, and so the rest of the journey is much more pleasant. Tony and Clint keeping up a healthy banter while Phil grins fondly, Natasha and Steve end up discussing the finer points of Northern Water Tribe cuisine. He’s looking right at her, in the middle of explaining how he doesn’t like the broth to be too thick, when he sees her whiten and stop. Steve stops in response, follows her line of vision, and then his breath catches. In front of them is a bastion of destruction; splintered trees and broken, decimated earth. There are no scorch marks, no bodies, just the look of a mountain that tried to turn itself inside out. In a second’s time Clint has already climbed up to the top of the closest standing tree.

            “What did this…?” Natasha whispers as Clint drops his way to the ground unceremoniously and reports.

            “The radius of the thing is pretty big, a mile at the least. I couldn’t see any raiders or armies, nothing moved except a couple of birds. Good news is whatever this was didn’t hit the town, which is just beyond the area of the destruction.” Phil nods in response.

            “We’re close then, and I’m sure they’ll be able to tell us more about it once we reach our destination. Let’s move out.”

            They begin carefully picking their way through the decimation, and Steve decides from the shifts of the rocks and the size of the boulders that this definitely looks like earthbending, though not exactly a type he has ever seen before. He catches Natasha giving the area a worried look, and Clint is just this side of antsy. Phil is rubbing his arrow, and strangely it is Tony Stark who remains utterly impassive. He walks straight ahead, carefully minding the broken branches and trip worthy rock around him, and doesn’t say a single word.

\---

            “I am Mayor Quan Lee, and we welcome you, Avatar, to our humble village!” They have literally just walked in through the front gate of the village, and already the mayor and his citizens are on their hands and knees in a deep bow. Steve sighs, he’d grown used to this sort of ridiculous thing during the war, but he never liked it one bit.

            “No, please, stand up. I’m just here to help.” Steve sees Mayor Lee trade the villagers a hesitant glance, “Really, stand.” His command voice gets him the result he wants, and in a second they’re all back on their feet. He shakes the mayor’s hand, and then they are lead into the village. They’re show to a beautiful, luxurious room with deep cushion and expensive scroll work. Mayor Lee takes one of the scrolls off of the wall and brings it to show the group. It depicts a large, angry spirit with teeth like knives and wild eyes; the only writing on the page appears to be a name – Gamma.

            “The legend of Gamma is one passed down through the ages in the towns of this area. It is said that he grants favors to those who sacrifice, and attacks those who are selfish and evil. Usually a force for good, the spirit has been said to lash out in anger and destroy villages.” Steve hears Tony snort next to him and he gives the dark haired man a dig in the ribs. Spirits were serious business. “Gamma hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years – it became the story parents told their children to keep them in line.”

            Mayor Lee’s face knots into a look of worry, and he bits his lip briefly before continuing. “The rumors started about a few years ago. At first it was just merchants from other towns passing through and saying that they heard from someone, who heard from someone, who heard from someone else that there was a Gamma sighting. However, as time went on it became less of a game of telegram, and more personal. I met a man who claimed he lost his house to the wrath of Gamma. Concerns were growing, property damage was rising, and then – before Gamma ever reached our peaceful village – he disappeared. For over a year, there was no more Gamma.”

            “But the damage,” Steve starts, and the Mayor nods.

            “Yes, there was no more Gamma… until last week. We’re not sure what kept him away from the town, but I – we all – saw his rampage in the forest. You’ve seen the results with your own eyes – no single earthbender could do that.”

            “You’re sure you saw him, the spirit?” Phil asks, and the Mayor nods.

            “It could not have been anything else.”

            “Except a bunch of earthbenders in a ridiculous costume…” Stark mutters and Steve shoots him a dark look

            “No!” Quan Lee is shaking his head furiously, “I know what I saw. It… it wasn’t even close to being human. It was Gamma.” He turns to Steve, his eyes begging him to believe him, to save them, and Steve is helpless. He stands up, and extends his hand again to Mayor Lee.

            “Mr. Mayor, I’m not sure what has happened to Gamma in the spirit world, but I promise to find out.”

            “Thank you Avatar I-“ When Steve leans over to grasp the Mayor’s hand, he accidentally bumps his cup of tea and spills a hot cup of tea all over the scroll. “Oh my gosh I am so sorry.”

            “That was a priceless artifact, dating back hundreds of years.” Mayor Quan’s voice cracks, and he is looking down at the ruined painting like he can’t even believe this just happened.

            “I know, believe me there is nothing I want to do less than hurt something that’s old. If I can just…” Steve makes to grab the scroll but Mayor Quan shoos him away.

            “It’s fine! It’s fine! Just. Please. Attendants are ready to take you to your room.”

            Clint complains that if Steve hadn’t ruined the painting, they probably would have gotten better lodging. He might be right. As it is, it’s just one large tatami room with a small bathroom attached. They’re all going to sleep in the same space, and when the citizens bring Natasha a screen she just raises her eyebrows and thanks them, but as soon as they leave she and Clint are laughing. Even Phil seems vaguely amused. Steve raises his eye brows in question.

            “Sorry,” Clint laughs, “it’s just that after years of high pressured, under-cover field opps together, there isn’t a lot that Tasha and I haven’t shared.” Which causes Steve to turn bright red. He pointedly looks away as Natasha dresses down. “So,” Clint says, slapping his hands together, “A giant vengeful spirit. How the hell am I supposed to shoot that?”

            “You’re not,” Steve says, “because I’m going to into the Spirit World to talk to Gamma.”

            “And if talking doesn’t work?” Natasha asks, twirling a ring of water around her finger.

            “If talking doesn’t work… this is still a problem I need to face in the Spirit World. This is not a question of martial justice, or organization operatives, this is a question about the balance of nature, and it’s my duty to maintain that.” Natasha and Clint don’t seem particularly happy with that answer, but Phil looks pleased. Stark is scowling.

            “This is assuming that it actually _is_ a spirit.”

            “It’s not a bunch of earthbenders in a get-up, Stark. You’re not going to pull off someone’s mask at the end of this.”

            “I’m just saying there may be a solution you haven’t considered yet. But please, meditate away.”

            “I will!” and Steve sits down in a humph on the floor.

            “Maybe,” interjects Phil, “We should wait until morning. Get a good night’s rest first. It has been a hard day of travel, and I think the stress is beginning to affect your temperaments.” Steve nods wearily, and retreats to the futon next to the window, Stark claims the one at the other end of the room, leaving the three organization members sandwiched between them.

            “It’s like a big slumber party!” Clint sarcastically squeals, “Natasha, truth or dare?”

            “I think you know the answer to that one.”

            “Alright, dare.”

            “I dare you to go to sleep,” Phil says, and Clint breathes out a drowsy laugh.

            “Everyone knows that Agent Phil doesn’t sleep, he waits.”

            The banter continues on for a little while, but eventually the noise dies down and before Steve notices it, he’s asleep.

\---

            Steve dreams of tearing claws and crumbling earth, and a familiar voice sounds in his ear. He knows that voice, he knows what he has to do. His eyes snap open and he notices that the room is still dark, only barely lit up with the glow of the moon. Steve shifts slightly and sees Tony huddled in on himself against the wall, and Clint with his head mashed into Phil’s shoulder. He sits up quickly. Natasha is… on the sill of the open window, glancing at the half moon. The light of the moon lights up half of her face, and the other half is in shadow.

            “Waterbenders have a special connection to the moon,” he says, as he sits on the sill next to Natasha. She smiles.

            “Yes, it was the moon spirit that gave us our bending, and continues to power us to this day.” Concern grows in her eyes, “why are you up Steve, another bad dream?” Steve stiffens, and then flushes briefly. Natasha has the room next to his on the boat, and sometimes when he wakes up from his dreams about the war… he never knew that she could hear him before. He doesn’t flinch at the warmth of her hand over his. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of-“

            “No it’s... it’s not that,” and Steve doesn’t know how to thank her for not saying anything, or rather for saying the right thing, but something in Natasha’s eyes tell him that she doesn’t need to be thanked. “It was a dream – a spiritual dream. I need to…” he gestures out the window and Natasha nods in response. She then stands and hops out the window.

            “Well, let’s go then.”

            “But… the others…”

            “Clint will figure it out, or if he doesn’t then Phil definitely will. You need someone to watch over you, right? Your body can’t be moved.” Steve doesn’t know how she knows that (more legends?) but secretly he’s a little relieved that she’s coming with him. He had his body moved once while he was in the Spirit World and finding his way back wasn’t exactly a roaring good time.

            The two walk towards the edge of town, just past the gate and into the forest. Steve has always found that he has an easier time reaching the spirit world if he’s surrounded by nature, as opposed to people. Silently, he folds himself into a meditative stance and begins to slow his breathing. 3, 2, 1-

\---

            _‘Oh’_

_The spirit world feels just the same, cold and insubstantial all at once. His footsteps make no sound upon the ground, and yet he can hear his every movement. Steve’s senses are hyper aware, and completely unconnected to any sort of earthly proceeding. He looks at  his quiet, almost lifeless body, and he sees Natasha settle in for the long hall._

_‘Avatar Isaiah?’ he yells, because he know who called him here with that dream. He had always been moderately close to the previous Avatar, a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, and he looks forward to greeting his past life again. However Isaiah doesn’t show up, so Steve starts walking. He walks to the site of the destruction, and seeing it now on a spiritual level he can see that it is indeed infused with spiritual energy, but not the sort he was expecting. It’s not pure, it’s… tainted, somehow, with the taste of humanity. Negative Jin is steeped into the earth, and if this is Gamma’s doing, Steve wonders what upset him so._

_‘Gamma? Gamma, I am the Avatar, bridge between the worlds, and I am here to talk.’ For a moment there isn’t an answer, and Steve wonders if he should try for Isaiah again, but then the ground shakes (no, it doesn’t shake, because this isn’t the earth, this is something deeper than the earth, it is the heart of the planet itself, beating hard and altogether intangible) and then Gamma is looming about Steve. The painting didn’t do him justice; his skin is shiny like black oil, his beard and eyebrows are dripping magma, and his teeth aren’t knives – they’re juts of rock iron, stalactites in a cave. If Steve were a different sort of man, he would back away, but he doesn’t run away from fights._

_‘Have you made a sacrifice, young Avatar?’ Steve doesn’t hear Gamma’s voice so much as feel it in the rumbles beneath his boots._

_‘No.’_

_‘Then why are you here?’_

_‘I want to know why you have been attacking these villages, and scaring these people.’  Gamma just blinks slowly._

_‘I can promise you, that it wasn’t_ I _who did anything.’ Steve frowns._

_‘Then who-‘_

_‘A man did try to sacrifice, last week. I wasn’t interested’ Steve doesn’t say anything. Often times with Spirits, if you just wait, they’ll continue speaking. ‘Someone who wasn’t supposed to be there saw. A friend of mine.’_

_‘Another spirit?’_

_‘No.’ Gamma flicks his tongue out lazily, ‘tell me, Avatar, what can you smell?’_

_‘I smell… pine needles, dirt, must, and…’_

_‘And?’_

_‘Blood, I smell blood.’_

_‘Good luck, Avatar. Please, go easy on him. He’s one of my favorites.’ and with the roar of a landslide, Gamma is gone._

\---

“He’s breathing! Look – he’s coming ‘round!” Steve doesn’t know why those words are so familiar, or why they make him feel cold, but he opens his eyes to see sunlight reflecting off of Tony’s goggles, and turning his eyes gold. He moves aside and allows Steve to sit up, albeit somewhat woozily.

            “Did you find Gamma?” Phil asks, and Steve nods.

            “I did but…” he glances briefly at Tony, “he didn’t do this. It was someone else… a ‘friend’, he called him.” Phil’s face betrays nothing, but Steve sees Tony’s face grow concerned, and Clint’s surprised eyebrows.

            “I didn’t know spirits had friends.”

            “They don’t,” Steve rolls to his feet and stands up, “not human ones at least.” Phil still doesn’t raise an eyebrow, but now even Tony looks mildly surprised.

            “Do you know where to find him?” Phil asks, and Steve shakes his head.

            “No, but I know where to start looking.”

\---

            They wait another hour before heading over to the sickhouse. It’s just a little too early to be visiting anyone, and anyways traveling to the Spirit World always makes Steve ravenous so he wants the breakfast that was kindly brought to them. Natasha makes possibly the world’s best tea, and Steve pretends not to notice when Tony steals one of his eggs. He also knows that Tony knows that he’s just pretending not to notice. It’s a small apology for last night. Eventually they do make their way though, and the medicine lady lets them in with a small smile. There is a sick child on one bed, a pregnant woman being examined on another and finally on the last one…

            “That’s the blood…” Steve says, and it must be some remnant from the spirit world, or a little more help from Gamma that he’s still able to smell it. The odor belongs to a man of perhaps thirty years, with an arm in a sling and a face that looks like it lost a battle with a rhino bear. A bandage is wrapped around his head, and another one covers his torso.

            “He was injured in the Gamma attack,” explains the medicine lady, “his daughter unfortunately didn’t survive. They were out in the forest and…” There’s a moment where the weight of these words settle on the group.

            “Why did Dr. Bruce leave, if this man was so clearly injured?” Steve asks, and the woman looks surprised.

            “You know Bruce?”

            “We met him in the forest,” Clint explains, and a confused expression covers her face.

            “Bruce left over a week ago, there is no way that he could still be wandering around in that forest. Unless he got very, very lost. Which is possible, I suppose.”

            “Excuse me,” Tony says, “when, exactly, did he leave?”

            “Why, just the day before Gamma attacked.”

            Uh oh.

\---

            “If he’s been in the forest this whole time,” Steve said, “there’s a good chance he still hasn’t moved. Natasha, you’re going to tell him that one of us has broken a leg, and beg him to come help. If we all close in on him, he might lash out. We need to be smart about this, any one man who can do that is not one to be trifled with.”

            So Natasha finds herself half stumbling (she knows where every branch, ever rock, every insect is on this ground) with tear blurred (she can count the needles on the pines) vision as she runs towards where they last saw the doctor. Luckily, he is still at the brook, humming thoughtlessly as he washes his hands in the clear water. She crashes into the stream and he stumbles backwards, looking up at her with sharp, concerned eyes.

            “Please,” she chokes out, “please you have to help me! My friend… his leg…” and that is all she says before breaking off and looking to the side. 3, 2, 1.

            “Let’s go.” Bruce begins to run with her, and Natasha can’t help but notice that when he stumbles, it’s for real. He also really does seem intent on helping her friend, which seems odd for a man who killed a child and put a man in the hospital. But of all people, Natasha knows that looks can be deceiving. They run for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, in the opposite direction of the town, and then Natasha hears the signal – Clint’s hawk call – and stops. Bruce looks around expectantly. “Where is he? Where is…”

            Natasha turns around and her eyes are dry and assessing, her panic is replaced with a mask of cool. Whatever she was a second ago is gone, and Bruce seems to get the hint because he chuckles darkly to himself.

            “I get it, I get it.” Is all he says before arrows are pinning his cuffs to the ground, and a whip of water is wrapped around his middle. Steve and the others come slowly out of the woods and face him. “Look,” Bruce says calmly, “whoever you are, whatever you want to do with me – it’s not happening. I suggest you put this all away, and just let me go.”

            “We’d like you to explain a few things first,” Phil states mildly, and Bruce just frowns, “a man is dying in the hospital, and his daughter is already dead. Why did you do it?”

            “Why did you murder a child?” Bruce’s face twists and darkens.

            “I didn’t do that. Now I suggest you let me go, before you meet someone who would.”

            “I’ve already met your friend Gamma,” Steve says, and Bruce’s eyes widen.

            “You’ve met Gamma.”

            “Yes.”

            “And you think I’m his _friend?”_ Bruce snarls, but Steve doesn’t even blink.

            “His words, not mine.” Something breaks in Bruce’s expression there.

            “Who are you, to speak to spirits like Gamma?”

           “The Avatar.” Steve’s tone is like iron, and his chest is puffed and proud. Natasha can see that it’s not a role, it’s who he is through and through. Bruce takes a deep breath, and seems to consider Steve’s answer.

            “Avatar, if I talk you have to listen, and you need to let me sit down before I do something I really regret.” Steve looks to the rest of his group, getting confirmation from each one of them.

            “Alright, but the water stays.”

            “Deal.”

\---

            “Several years ago, I was a practicing scientist in the city of Ba Sing Se,” Bruce takes a sip of his tea and continues “we took a journey out to these parts, so that the army could test some earthbending theories I had been working on.”

            “I knew it!” Tony crows, “I knew I had heard that name before! Dr. Bruce of Ba Sing Se! Your work in the field of energy studies is unparalleled. And apparently you do some serious damage as well.” Bruce smiles blandly in response.

            “Thank you. You know, I never really wanted to work for the army. I wanted to help people, but when Betty, my…  my… Betty’s father, the head of the Dai Li had asked for me specifically I thought that- I thought that if I could help him, help his soldiers, maybe I could make some sort of difference. I wanted to test my theories about the use of jin. If the soldiers could change the way they channel their jin – they might be more effective. There are three jins. Negative Jin, Neutral Jin, and Positive Jin. I thought that by twisting together Negative and Positive Jin, you could create something from combining the opposite reactions of the two energies to create a sort of polar field-“

            “Are we still speaking the same language?” Clint asks.

            “Right, sorry. Basically, I was trying to create a stronger form of bending, based off of pure energy. This kid… he followed us, and accidentally got in the line of fire and I… I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t even think about it, I just shoved him down and then I…” Bruce shakes his head, “Avatar, you’ve been to the Spirit world. You know it’s an experience like nothing else. Suddenly my breath was gone but I was still alive, or at least, I thought I was. Until I saw the face of the most terrifying monster in front of me. Gamma. He said… well, it doesn’t matter what he said. I had made a sacrifice, and he approved. He granted me my life back, only I didn’t realize until later that there was a cost. Negative jin. It’s all I have left in my body. I didn’t know that at first, not until the first time I lost my temper and then…” Bruce closes his eyes tight and shakes his head, “After that, there was no going back.”

            “What happens?” asks Steve softly, and Bruce looks at his hands.

            “The other guy comes out. He’s not human he’s not… he’s not me.” Bruce says this like a prayer, “he is not me. I couldn’t control him, and so I ran away. I regret that there were… some incidents along the way. But I swear, I figured it out. I was coping with it fine, and for the past year I even allowed myself to practice some medicine, do some good.”

            “Until last week,” Phil says, and Bruce nods.

            “I didn’t kill that girl. Her father did.” There is a sharp intake of breath around the circle. Steve sees the cold fury in Natasha’s eyes, and the way Clint’s hand automatically goes to his quiver. Bruce just continues talking, and a bitter laugh enters his voice. “He was sacrificing her to Gamma, Gamma of all spirits! The bastard never knew that that wasn’t the type of sacrifice Gamma was after. I was just leaving the town, I wasn’t supposed to see it, but I saw the blood spill from her throat and then… I don’t even remember what the other guy did to him,  I was that far gone. I just know that I woke up, and I was alone in the forest, surrounded by destruction. I’ve kept to myself since then. I-“ Bruce takes a deep breath, “I shouldn’t be alive, after what I tried.” Steve feels sick, he really does, he looks up to see Tony’s mouth slightly parted, his eyes full of something Steve has never seen before, “but the other guy… he kept me alive. I still think that I have him under control. I’ve just been hiding out here because…”

            “You need time,” Natasha says, and Bruce nods.

            Steve can’t even imagine that, that total loss of control. People might assume that the Avatar State was like that; it certainly had been with some of his predecessors. But for Steve, the Avatar State was always controlled and hyper aware. Emotions were magnified, powers were amplified, but it was a survival technique, a skill that Steve hadn’t quite mastered, but was able to use without fear of it over-whelming him. There had been that one time, after the Fire Nation spy had killed Erskine, but even then Steve had been aware of his actions, had listened when Peggy wrapped her arms around him to stop him from delivering the killing blow.

            Steve feels his stomach churn, he looks over and catches Clint’s look of incredulousness and Natasha’s lingering look of rage. Phil’s face, as usual, betrays nothing, but Steve sees him rub his arrow in concentration. Tony’s face is almost unreadable, his mouth a hard line now and his forehead crinkled. His eyes though – his eyes are still soft. Steve doesn’t know what he’s thinking.

            “We have to bring him in.” Phil says simply, and Bruce looks like he’s going to bolt again before Tony stands up.

            “No, we’re not. Not yet, anyways. Fury isn’t getting his grubby mitts on him.”

            “I think it’s best if I just continue with what I was doing…” Bruce starts, but Steve interrupts him.

            “Doctor, you said you wanted to help people? Help us. Help the Avatar. I am supposed to be the symbol of balance and justice in this world, if you can do good anywhere, it’s with us.” Tony casts Steve a grateful look and picks up from there.

  1.             “And you know what? Stark Industries could use a guy like you, and we’re headed back there anyways. Energy expertise is just what we need right now. Join us.”   



            Bruce might feel he’s left without a real choice – because there’s no way they’re letting him do what he wants and continue to live in the forest. Not when he’s capable of such massive destruction. Steve sees the path that Tony has opened for him though, and it feels just like being given paper and ink.

            “All right,” he says, and Steve knows Bruce is taking the better option, “I’ll go with you.”

\---

            They go back to the town to tell them that the problem is solved – Gamma won’t bother them anymore. Of course there is gratitude and a celebration. Someone suggests creating a new holiday – Avatar Steve Day, but Steve all but begs them not too.

            “Also, here-“ Steve says, holding out a piece of paper, “I know it’s not several hundreds of years old but… I can promise you it’s authentic. Mayor Lee takes the paper and studies it. It’s a painting Steve did of Gamma, in all of his terrifying molten glory.

            “This is…” the Mayor breathes in sharply, “This is an Avatar original! This is magnificent! It will hang on the walls of the Mayor’s house for hundreds of years!”

            “Assuming no one spills tea on it,” Clint mutters. They leave the town, and begin the long walk back to the boat.

            “So,” Tony says, “I’m really curious how you managed to control this thing for so long. Meditation? Music?”

            “I do play a mean tsungi horn.” Bruce grins slightly.

            “Stop teasing him, Tony.”

            “He doesn’t mind, Bruce do you mind?”

            “No it’s… it’s nice. I haven’t been teased in a long time.”

            “Trust me,” Clint says, “you’ll find plenty of that on board Stark’s boat. The guy doesn’t ever shut up.”

            “Oh like you can talk-“

            Well, Steve thinks, at least surviving on this boat will be a good test of Bruce’s self-control, if nothing else.

\---

            Tony doesn’t know why Steve comes down into the workshop to paint, maybe because of the adjustable metal tables, but he doesn’t feel like kicking him out. Steve is quiet, and watching him paint out of the corner of his eye is calming, in its own way. Steve’’s turning out to be not quite the gorgeous jerk that Tony thought he was at first. He’s… he’s kind, loyal, and driven. He’s respectable, in the end, and Tony – so help him – Tony actually kind of likes him.

            “Thank you, for following my lead with Bruce.” Tony says quietly, because Steve thanked him for saving a life once. The gratitude feels foreign on his tongue, and he’s not sure if Steve even hears him at first but then he looks up from his painting and gifts Tony with one of the sweet, slow smiles.

            “Well, you were right about the spirit, so I decided that you deserved the benefit of the doubt.”

            “You’ve never been out of control, have you?” Tony asks, and Steve pauses to consider before answering.

            “Not like, that, no.” he adds a few more brush strokes before asking, “Have you?” Tony doesn’t say anything in response, just thinks about blacked out nights and gloves that he couldn’t control, and the machine running his heart. His whole life is a firestorm gone out of control – but Steve doesn’t need to know that. His head snaps up at the sound of the workshop doors opening, and he sees Clint standing at the top of the staircase.

            “Oh I found them – Hey! Dinner is ready! Bruce made something, some sort of stew I think. Smells good.”

            “Be up in a second!” Steve calls back. He looks surprised when Tony stands up with him. Tony just shrugs.

            “I certainly don’t want to be the one to make Bruce sad, do you?” Steve smiles again and shakes his head. Together they ascend the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes!
> 
> 1\. Avatar Isaiah is a reference to the character Isaiah Bradley - the black Captain America who was actually given the super soldier serum before Steve. His grandson, Eli, is a member of the Young Avengers with is a series I HIGHLY suggest. They'll probably make various appearances throughout this story because I love those kids.
> 
> 2\. I'm going to come out and say I have never seen a Hulk movie, so I don't know how they handled Bruce Banner's origin. This is based off of his origin in the comics, where he pushed Rick Jones out of the way of gamma rays and became The Hulk. 
> 
> 3\. Artist Steve makes his appearance! Everybody's favorite.
> 
> 4\. Who can guess where Quan Lee's name came from. Also, he's probably going to be an Officer Jenny like character.
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns - they're my favorite things.


	6. The Cave of Two Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Glad to know that you're still enjoying this thing. Ehm. I mean. I'll keep writing it as long as you do (let's be real I'll probably keep writing it even if you don't)
> 
> So... here we go!

“Wow Bruce, you really weren’t kidding about the tsungi horn,” Clint says as the last note of the song fades out. Steve has to agree, he has met few people who could play the horn as beautifully as Bruce just did. Honestly, you would never believe that someone capable of such delicacy would be able to level an entire city. Bruce smiles sheepishly in response to Clint’s comment.

            “In the beginning music… helped. It could calm me down.” For a second he doesn’t meet anyone’s eyes, but he looks up just in time to catch Natasha smiling warmly at him.

            “Hey, whatever keeps you from destroying a small town buddy,” Tony said as he slurps the last of his Southern Water Tribe Noodles. It’s his first meal since Bruce’s soup from a day and a half ago, which is probably why he keeps eating it despite the faces he’s making.

            “Where did you even get a tsungi horn from Tony?” Phil asks, because that is the real question on everyone’s minds. Tony just shrugs.

            “I knew we had one somewhere, this boat has all sorts of crap on it – I never clean it out – so it was just a matter of finding it. You can keep it you know; I sure as fuck can’t play it.” Tony tosses the offer out like he does anything else in his life – irreverently and seemingly without purpose. Go ahead, take his junk, it’s not like _he’s_ using it. Steve, however, is starting to see a pattern, and sometimes when he can’t sleep he thinks about what it means.

            “Thank you.” Bruce’s smile is small in private, but there’s also a bit of conflict in his eyes. Steve wonders what happened to his last tsungi horn, wonders about when music stopped calming Bruce down.

            The weather had been just warm enough to inspire a fulfilling laziness. It had been one of those days where you couldn’t force yourself to do much; Steve and Natasha’s sparring was more like really long conversation with some occasional movements thrown in, and even Phil didn’t meditate so much as take a really poised nap. Tony spent most of his time not looking for the tsungi horn topside, having a target hitting contest with Clint: and occasionally cheating when he felt that he was losing (which was always). Bruce had begun to play the horn around sunset, his sound muffled as if he was trying not to disturb anyone. It wasn’t that big of a boat though, so eventually the others found him and listened, transfixed. Steve recognized the song, any kid from Omashu would, but he was surprised that Bruce knew it as well. It was different though; slow and haunting, a world away from the sing-song nursery rhyme Steve had grown up with.

            “I wasn’t aware that the Secret Tunnel Song was popular outside of Omashu.”

            “Who said I’ve never been to Omashu?” Bruce counters, and Steve concedes the point with a nod of his head.

            “I’ve never heard it played like that before. It sounded so… lost, and sad.”

            “A sad song for a sad story,” is Bruce’s reply. Steve agrees with him; heartache wasn’t something that should be whistled down the street. He knows that now.  

            “You knew that song?” asks Phil.

            “Everyone in Omashu did. I don’t even remember learning it – it’s like I’ve always known it.”

            “Go on Avatar, sing us a verse,” Tony’s smile is teasing, and Steve is about to refuse on the grounds of not making a fool out of himself for Stark’s amusement, but then he remembers nights around the campfire with his soldiers, and how songs from different homelands could bring them all closer. This isn’t that different, really.

 _“_ _Two lovers, forbidden from one another_

_A war divides their people, and a mountain divides them apart._

_Built a path to be together._ _”_

           Steve pauses for a second, “Um, I actually forget this part, but it has something to do with being trapped forever…”

 

            “What?” Tony asks, “Was I the only one who heard that?”

 

 _“_ _Secret tunnel!_

_Secret tunnel!_

_Through the mountain!_

_Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!_ _”_

 

            Phil, Natasha, and Bruce clap politely when Steve finishes. Tony and Clint just stare.

            “I liked Bruce’s version better…” mumbles Clint.

            “Seriously? Did no one else here the ‘trapped forever’ part? How could you forget the one useful part of the song? The warning about death!” Tony throws his hands up in the air and Steve rolls his eyes.

            “No one said the song was supposed to be useful, Tony.”

            “Hey hey, no more fighting! I thought we were past that!” Clint snaps, and Steve backs down immediately. He’s right; they are supposed to be over that. Steve will admit to liking Tony in the right light, so why does he keep feeling the need to snap back at him? A look over at the dark haired man shows him equally cowed. The resolutely don’t meet each other’s eyes, and Clint lets out a sigh.

            “Hey Bruce, I got a song for you to play.” The archer bends over and whispers into Bruce’s ear, and Bruce’s lips quirk into a smile.

            “Yeah, I can play that.” Bruce picks up the beat and Clint extends a hand down to Natasha, who smiles and allows herself to be pulled to her feet. Immediately the two are dancing together, foreheads practically touching, and if Steve didn’t have his suspicions before, by now they’re pretty confirmed. He thinks he might hear Phil mutter a small ‘oh no’ before the two of them start singing.

 _“_ _It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se_

_But the girls in the city they look so pretty_

_And they kiss so sweet that you've really got to meet_

_The girls from Ba Sing Se_ _!”_

 

            Wait a second, Steve knows this song too. He’s pretty sure he heard it in the army… The way Harley’s beginning to growl along is definitely familiar…

 

_“It’s a long, long way to Ba Sing Se_

_But the girls ‘round town can take away your frown_

_And if you’re in luck, you’ll get to fuck_

_The girls from Ba Sing Se!”_

            “Okay. We’re done here.” Phil says and Steve bites back a smile – he had forgotten how vulgar soldiers could be.

            “Aw, but the next verse is all about how if you’re not busy you’ll get to eat- ow!” Clint breaks off as Phil cuffs him lightly on the head. All Natasha gets is a well-meaning glare, but from the way she’s smiling it clearly has no effect.

            “Hey boss,” Happy sticks his head out of the window, “we should be at Omashu by tomorrow. It’s too far inland to sail to, so we’ll have to dock and continue on foot. Alright?”

            “Alright Happy, thanks,” Tony nods and looks at Steve, “Well Avatar, it looks like you’ll be going home tomorrow.”

\---

            They’ve docked the boat and are now making the trek to Omashu. It’s only half a day’s walk to the border of Omashu, and Steve feels something clutch at his chest when he sees the city looming tall up ahead.

            “Happy to be going home, Steve?” Phil asks as he brushes against Steve’s shoulder. Steve just smiles and runs a hand down Harley’s back. Home. He doesn’t know what to make of that word. Omashu meant a lot to Steve, it was where his parents died and where he met Bucky. It was where they tousled in the dirt and stole heads of cabbage. It was where Bucky made him laugh until he cried, and pulled his scrawny body close when the tears were real. But Omashu never had Peggy, or Erskine, or the Howling Commandos. Omashu never saw a Steve that could waterbend, or airbend. Omashu never fed Steve, never kept him safe at night.

            “I haven’t been back since I was 15, right when I finished earthbending training… and then I went to the North Pole and never came back.” Steve mutters, and Phil gives him a friendly pat on the back.

            “It’ll be good to see it again,” Natasha says, coming up alongside Phil.

          “Yeah. I wonder if the Omashu delivery service still exists. It would be a shame in the telegram replaced it.”

            “Who the hell cares about a delivery service?” Clint asks.

 

            “Well… most people used it as a delivery service. Bucky and I had some… different ideas in mind. We made it into the world’s largest roller coaster. Because no childhood in Omashu is complete without riding down a stone pathway at a hundred miles per hour and wondering if you were going to be crushed to death.” Steve deadpans. Clint grins in response.

            “Sounds like my kind of ride.”

            “The delivery service is still there, last I checked, which was admittedly a few years ago.” Bruce chimes in.

            “It’s still there.” Tony agrees. Steve smiles. Good. Not everything had changed then. “But the regulations have tightened, since there were some… incidents a couple years back. No more sneaking onto mail carriers for kids I’m afraid.” Which causes Steve’s grin to fade a bit.

            “That’s unfortunate.” He says, and he hopes his disappointment doesn’t seep through. Tony looks at him and hums an agreement. Steve sees that there’s an odd crinkle in his brow. They continue walking the path to Omashu, thankfully it’s quite a bit cooler than the last time they were on such a journey. This time Happy and Pepper are both with them. Pepper’s riding on top of Harley, at first when Steve offered the option to her she gave a curt thanks and continued walking ahead, but then she shrugged and came back, allowing Steve to help her onto the giant saber tooth moose lion.

            “If you’re offering I might as well accept,” she said. She and Harley continued to get along famously as they got closer to Omashu. They’re a little over half-way there now, and Steve can feel his anticipation building with every step. They break for lunch, and are just packing up, when they see a shape coming towards them. A little closer and they can see it’s a group of several people.

            “Stark, I thought I said no welcoming committee.” Phil frowns, but Tony shakes his head.

            “Hey, I have nothing to do with this one.”

            The people get closer, and Steve can see that it’s a young woman clutching a child, followed by a man and a woman. It’s only when she’s traveled a few more yards that the group can see the fear on her face and the panic in her steps. She’s not traveling with the other people; she’s running away from them. It only takes a second for them to spring into action; the attackers aren’t expecting them, so it doesn’t take much for Steve to hit them hard with a slab of rock while Phil blasts the knives out of their hands. Pepper has already sprung off of Harley and she is advancing on the frightened woman – not a woman, a girl no older than 15. She’s trying to calm her down while Natasha and Clint loom over the fallen attackers.

            “P-please,” the girl chokes out, “You have to help. They, they-“

            “Shh…” Pepper whispers, “it’s okay. You’re safe. But I need you to calm down and tell us what happened. Can you do that for me?” The girl nods and takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “Good.”

            “We were taking our goods to the market in Omashu when they attacked us. My mom gave me my little brother and I ran –  I saw my dad…” she breaks off in another sob and if the captives gasp in pain at the tightening of the earth around their hands and feet… well.  

            “What made you think you had to chase after a defenseless little girl?” growls Happy, and Natasha’s eyes are cold when she answers him.

            “They were getting rid of the witnesses. Pick off stray wagons, steal the supplies, sell them. If they’re doing business in Omashu they must be profitable. But something went wrong this time, didn’t it?” Natasha waits for an answer, her eyes suddenly compassionate. “You didn’t mean for it to happen, right? It was an accident.” The woman, a grizzled 40 years old, says absolutely nothing, but the boy is young. His eyes are wide with terror and rimmed with red, one look at his outfit and you can see that he doesn’t have much, has never had much.

            “He wasn’t supposed to die. I didn’t want to kill anyone!” he sobs out, and the woman turns on him sharply.

            “Shut up Joey!” but Natasha shoots her a look and she doesn’t continue.

            “No. Of course you didn’t.”

            “There is a chance,” says Phil, “That your mother is still alive. If you tell us where you last saw them, we’ll try to find them and bring her back. In the meantime, you should go with Pepper and Happy here and alert the closest organization members, okay?” The girl shakes her head.

            “Some of them… a couple of the people who attacked us, I recognized them as organization members from a nearby village. I- I don’t want to involve them. Please.” Her large brown eyes water and she clutches her baby brother closer. No one tells her that Phil, Clint, and Natasha are all organization members, they just nod sympathetically.

            “Of course sweetheart,” says Clint, but Steve can see the way his fingers tighten on his bow, and the little spark of fury that ignites in Natasha’s eyes. Phil’s face remains carefully blank, but Steve is starting to see past that, and he notices the hard set to his mouth that isn’t usually there. Just the smallest tic in his jaw, to show that he’s truly angry. This is personal for them, and Steve realizes it’s personal for him too. The organization only exists because he wasn’t there… and between these thugs and the absent members at the town with the raiders…

            “We’ll find them,” he says, squatting down slightly to look her in the eye, “I promise.”

\---

            They reach the place where a battle took place eventually, Steve can tell by the dried blood on the ground and the disrupted earth, which means that they must have at least one earthbender with them. Clint points out a set of tracks in the ground and they begin following them – his sniper’s eye holds true because even Steve couldn’t see those. It’s not very long before they happen upon the attackers, circled up just outside the mouth of a cave. Six of them in total, and Steve can make out the girl’s mother huddled by the father’s body. For a second he’s afraid – but then he sees the shudder of her breathing and the twitch of her legs. She’s alive.

            “Bruce, I’m going to need you to take the girl’s mother back to Omashu on Harley. There’s a good chance that the bandits will run into that cave, and I know how you feel about compressed spaces.” Bruce nods and tentatively pats Harley’s back. Steve turns back to the cave and stares critically. It looks like… he lets out a sigh. “That cave is actually a tunnel – part of a series of tunnels that run underneath the mountain and into Omashu.”  
            “The secret tunnel from the song?” asks Clint.

            “The secret tunnel that was connected to being trapped forever and ultimate death?” asks Tony.

            “That’s the one.”

            “Do you know the layout?” Phil is already staring critically at the mouth of the tunnel, and probably running it against the map of Omashu he has in his head.

          “No,” Steve shakes his head, “we were told never to play in there as kids, and for once we actually listened.”

            “I wonder why.” Natasha adds dryly.

            “Clint, can you get a lock on them from here?” asks Phil, and Clint shakes his with a grimace.

            “I mean sure, I can knock a couple of them out from here, but they’ll know exactly where we’ll be coming from – there’s no high ground to give us a tactical advantage. It’d be better to attack, cause a distraction, and let Bruce get out with the captive.” He’s already slipped his sais out in anticipation, and Steve sees Tony flexing his gloves and Natasha opening the cap on her bottle of water.

            “Alright-“ Steve is just about to outline a battle plan when Tony launches himself forward, boots on and gloves flaming.

            “Attack!” he yells, which really. The others have no choice but to follow them then and Clint was right – an outward attack did give them the element of surprise. Tony’s able to take one person out before the earthbender sends up a thick, 20 foot tall wall while they escaped into the tunnels. Steve swears quietly under his breath. He had really been hoping that it wouldn’t come to that. Luckily, in their shock they forgot the girl’s mother, and he looks over to see Bruce carefully administering to her wounds.

            “She’ll be okay! Go!” Bruce waves them forward and Tony and Clint are already running into the tunnel, with Natasha and Phil not far behind. Steve does a quick sprint and by the time they catch up he’s already lost sight of the entrance.

            They’re in a space that isn’t so much a tunnel as it is a giant cavern, and Steve can see not one but two more tunnels leading out of there. This may be more difficult than he thought, especially considering that the only light comes from the fire of Tony’s gloves in angry bursts – leaving them occasionally in the dark. With a stomp of his foot Steve effectively locks them in the cavern, but the other earthbender keeps taking down his walls, which is a constant annoyance.

            Steve has subdued a young woman, and he sees that Natasha has another woman pinned to the wall. The earthbender is giving Tony hell, but he appears to have the upper hand. Clint has just knocked his guy unconscious when the lights go out for a brief second and it happens. There is the slide of metal and a gasp, and then Phil slumps hard against the wall. Time seems to slow down for a second, as Steve’s eyes widen at Phil’s collapsed body. Then he hears the sound of Clint’s feet and everything picks up again.

            “YOU BASTARD!” Clint yells and before the bandit can even process what’s happening, Clint’s thrown him against the far wall and is pointing an arrow right at the man’s throat. Steve isn’t sure if he’s going to let it loose or not, isn’t sure if that man is going to survive.

            “Clint-“ Phil shouts, and all eyes turn to him, including Tony’s, which allows the earthbender to raise his hands and bring the ceiling of the cavern crashing down on top of them. Steve doesn’t think, he just wraps his arms around Tony’s chest and pulls him back from the falling rocks. He loses his footing briefly and falls under the weight of Tony’s body, smacking his head hard on the cave floor.

            Given the noise and the dust and the slight blow to the back of Steve’s head in the fall, it takes him a second to realize that he’s still lying on his back with Tony on top of him. He’s about to ask Tony why he doesn’t get up – is he okay? When he realizes his arms are still locked around the inventor’s middle. He immediately releases his clasped hands, and the two of them stand up slowly.

            “You saved my ass there – even I wasn’t going to find a way out of being crushed to death.” Tony’s eyes are wide as he looks at the pile of rock in front of them.

            “Now we’re even.” Tony opens his mouth like he’s about to respond, but he seems to think better of it (a rare occurrence – it must be the shock) and he turns around to see Natasha healing the gash on Phil’s side. Steve looks at the mostly unconscious bandits, and immediately slaps a bunch of rock handcuffs on them. He looks around for the earthbender, and comes to the sad conclusion that he must have been buried in the rubble. He shakes his head – this wasn’t a cause to die for.

            Phil is breathing easy after a second, and he sends Natasha a grateful smile before frowning.

            “Where is Clint?” Natasha’s head jerks sharply, and they all begin scanning the room. Steve can feel the fear beginning to pool in his stomach, and he casts a look at the tumble of rocks. Clint can’t be… Slowly he crouches down, and lays his palm flat against the ground. There had been a blind girl he and Bucky met while training in earthbending. She had only just arrived when Steve was leaving, so he had never been able to fully master her tricks, but she still managed to teach Steve a couple things. She and Bucky had apparently gotten pretty close though. Steve closes his eyes and shifts his hand on the ground, feeling the layout of the room and the gap of the cave in. He had thought that it filled the other half of the cavern completely, but it appears to just be a line down the center, and Clint is…

            “He’s okay,” Steve says at last, “he’s on the other side of the cave-in, but he’s okay. I can feel him breathing.” Phil lets out a sigh of relief, while Natasha stands up and stalks over to Steve.

            “You’re an earthbender, can’t you bend a passage to the other side?” Steve shifts his hand on the ground again and shakes his head.

            “No, it’s no good. The rock is too unstable; any movement and I’d bring this whole place down on top of us. If I had another earthbender… but he…” Steve nods his head at the pile of rock and Natasha’s mouth folds into a thin line of understanding. She takes a step back and looks seemingly impassively at the pile of rocks in front of them. There’s the faintest glance of worry in her eyes, just for a second, and then it’s gone. Steve understands – it’s hard to be separated from your loved one.

            “Clint is trained in protocol,” Phil hoists himself off the ground and dusts off his pants. He discards his ripped shirt and stretches his skin experimentally, “if he’s unhurt like you say he is, he’ll know to try and work his way out of the caves to meet us. He should have at least a few torches in his pack, so he’ll be alright on light for now.” Phil’s tone shows his utter confidence in Clint’s abilities, and that boosts Steve’s spirits considerably.

            “We better get going if we ever want to get out of here.”

\---

            The cave in hadn’t startled Clint into shooting the man in the throat – but it came close.  Dried blood rested on the man’s collar bone from where the tip of Clint’s arrow had grazed him.

            “You’re a disgrace to the organization.” Clint said, as he kicked the man lightly in the ribs and slapped the cuffs he was carrying on him. “Robbery, murder – you’re going away for a long time.”

 

            “No one was supposed to die, we were just supposed to take their goods, but Joey was too nervous…”

            “Regardless, you’re supposed to protect the people, not mug them. It’s your duty.” The man surged to his feet at Clint’s words his eyes angry and his teeth smeered with blood.

            “I have a duty to my family too – I can’t let them go hungry! An organization worker’s salary isn’t much to go on, and it’s not like Nick Fury ever offered to help _me,_ or any of us! _”_

 _"_ Yeah," Clint spits, "I'm sure the kids are gonna be real proud of their old man. Helping his family by destroying another." The bandit has the good sense to shut up then, rage clearly twitching in his cheeks but shame in his eyes as he follows Clint dully down the tunnel ways.

            Clint knows what happened - he just saw the knife hit Phil and then his vision was red, red, red. Phil was going to give him a hard time about losing his cool – more of that bullshit about feelings on the field (Clint was normally fine, really, it’s just that this wasn’t a real op and some two-bit criminal didn’t get to take Phil out and live) but Clint didn’t care as long as he got push his face into Phil’s neck and hold him close again. It was part of the job, the whole near death experience thing (spirits above knew that Phil had held Clint’s guts in on at least one particularly memorable occasion), but that didn’t make it any easier.

            He had been feeling his way along the wall (left hand always against the wall, because Clint learned in the circus that was the way to get out of a maze, though he wasn’t so sure it applied here) for at least two hours now, because he was already down one torch. Those fuckers, dragging them into a goddamn cave like this. Of all the places Clint hated being, underground was at the top of the list. It was all dark shadows and cut off corners; hard to get a decent look at the surroundings and even harder to take shots in. Not so hard that Clint missed – because he never missed – but hard enough to be a real pain in the ass.

            “I am never going near another tunnel again. Not ever fucking again.” Clint growls, because there’s something else about his situation that he doesn’t like: being alone. Clint, for all of his lone sniper tricks and evenings spent up in his birds’ nests, has never taken a solo operation. He needs the partnership at the end, the person to gripe with and dress his wounds. He needs direction; words in his ear and a reminder to fill out his paper work at the end of the day.

            In the beginning, there had always been Phil. Phil who had dragged Clint away from a life of petty crime, who showed Clint that he was better than that. They had worked together for two years, a stability Clint never had before. Then Clint found Natasha again, (or she found them, it depended on who was telling the tale) and then Phil got promoted.

            From then on it was usually him and Natasha, just like the old days on the street, and Clint thought that they were in love, he really did. He thought she had somehow come back to him, given up crime for him, until he realized that it was a different story altogether. Clint still loved Natasha but they needed to stop having sex. Pronto. Meanwhile there was still Phil for when Natasha had to go in alone and Clint didn’t have anyone else. There was always Phil, with his slow smile and deft fingers, and it took Clint longer than he liked to admit to figure that one out, but then he did, and Phil did, and they were good. It was good. Clint was happy.

            “C’mon Tasha, Phil. Please find me.” Clint knew that they would, he wasn’t going to spend the rest of his life trapped in a fucking mountain, no thank you. If anybody could find him, it would be his family. They both had practice with it.

            “What’s that growling noise?” it’s the first time the man has spoken in the past two and a half hours, and Clint listens carefully.

            “Oh fuck.” Of course he’d get the tunnel overrun by wolfbats.

\---

            “I knew it. I knew that song would come back to bite us in the ass.” Tony babbles on and on, gesturing loudly with his hands and completely ignoring the fact that they’re currently emitting flames.  “I just want to say that we’ve been stuck in this god-forsaken tunnel system for at least several hours, and that trapped forever bit is starting to seem pretty realistic. I knew we should have listened to that warning.” He peers over at Steve who remains silent. “Hey, you alright? You normally would have told me to shut up by now.”

            “No I – Honestly? I’m kind of enjoying your talking right now. It’s… helping.”

            “Helping with what?” Tony peers closely at Steve, his eyes the color of champagne in the firelight. Steve doesn’t answer, but somehow Tony pieces it together. Maybe he had been paying more attention than Steve thought. “The organization,” he casts a look at Natasha and Phil, heads also bowed together, and lowers his voice, “the organization isn’t your fault. It’s… a necessary evil, I guess, I’m definitely no fan of it, but it’s not your _fault_.”

            “I’m responsible-“

            “For the balance of the world, I know, I know. Blah blah blah Avatar duties. It’s okay, you can fulfill them now. You can lock these guys up, throw away the key, and then make sure peace reigns over the land. You can take it all back from the organization. I’ll help you. Hell, even Clint and Natasha will probably help you. Not so sure about Phil, but hey if giant bison can fly then who knows.” Tony gives Steve a small grin, a real one – not the teasing sarcastic flash of teeth he usually showed. Steve likes his smile, likes the way it makes his eyes crinkle, and likes the slight curl of his upper lip. Tony should smile like that more often.

            “Will you help me?” Because for whatever reason, Steve can’t imagine doing it without Tony.

            “Are you kidding? I would _love_ any reason to show fucking Nick Fury up. That man has been a pain in my side for too long.”

            “Thanks,” Steve wonders what it is with the two of them, why they keep thanking each other in every conversation. Fight or thank – the only types of conversations they seem to be able to have. “And Tony? Phil, the cave-in wasn’t your fault. Despite their appearances, these guys knew what they were doing.”

            “Yeah. Yeah.” Tony doesn’t sound convinced. They walk in silence for a bit more, Tony and Steve at the front of the pack with Natasha and Phil bringing up the rear. They don’t dare risk one of their prisoners escaping. “Hey, what’s that?” Tony points at the wall and Steve sees it, some sort of earthen door. Maybe the way out of here. He shifts his stance and swings his arms, and the door moves out of the way revealing –

            “A tomb.” Natasha’s voice echoes slightly in the dank chamber. They walk inside slowly, and Steve’s pretty sure he knows what this place is. Natasha beckons them forward to the side of the tomb, and begins reading the inscription.

                “ _They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages. The villages were enemies so they could not be together, but their love was strong, and they found a way. The two lovers learned Earthbending from the badger moles. They became the first Earthbenders. They built elaborate tunnels so that they could meet secretly, anyone who tried to follow them would be lost forever in the labyrinthine._

 _But one day, the man didn’t come. He died in the war between theuir two villages. Devastated, the woman unleashed a terrible display of her Earthbending power. She could’ve destroyed them all, but instead declared the war over. Both villages helped her build a new city, where they would live together in peace. The woman’s name was_ _Oma_ _, and the man’s name was_ _Shu_ _._

_The great city was named **Omashu**  as a monument to their love”_

 

            “That was beautiful,” sniffs one of the bandits, and Steve sees Tony roll his eyes and turn around.

            “No, sorry, you were part of a group that killed an innocent man today and then got us trapped in the fucking tunnels of death, you don’t get to talk period, much less about the beauty of true love and – hey, there’s another inscription here… _Love is brightest in the dark.”_ Tony pulls a what-the-fuck-face and shrugs before heading out of the tomb. Steve turns the sentence over in his mind as he follows. If Clint were here, he could ask him and Natasha but as it is… Steve doesn’t feel comfortable kissing a woman in a relationship, and he doesn’t know if Phil is one of the celibate monks, which leaves just…  

            “Tony, would you mind putting out your light for a second?”

            “What?” Tony asks incredulously, “Why?”

            “Just. Please?” Something in Steve’s voice makes Tony shrug, and the flame goes out.

            “Stark!” Phil barks, and Steve takes a step closer to Tony.

            “Okay, I have an idea…” is all he gets out before a dim light reappears in the tunnel.

            “Oh thank fuck!” that’s Clint, that’s Clint’s voice, and then there’s the sound of hurried footsteps, and the sound of a dropped torch. The light goes out quickly, and they’re in the dark, there’s muffled groan and then –

            “What in the world is that.” Tony breathes, looking up at the ceiling. Steve blinks. He can see. Why can he see? He looks up and sees… glowing crystals of some kind. Illuminating a pathway.

            “Hey guys!” He turns around, and catches Clint and Phil in the middle of a rather heavy liplock. Clint has one hand clasped around Phil’s neck, and the other rubbing slow circles onto his bare back, while Phil runs his fingers through Clint’s short hair. Oh. Natasha coughs and the two break apart. It only takes a second for Phil to school his sheepish grin into a calm mask, but Clint keeps his grin wicked.

            “Shirtless? Was this a welcome back present for me?” He runs his fingers across Phil’s chest, but Steve knows how to spot someone looking for a wound. Clint doesn’t back away until he’s certain that Phil’s not bleeding anywhere.

            “Hey lovebirds!” Tony shouts, “I think we found a way out of here.”

            “This day just keeps getting better and better!” Clint whoops, and then he wraps Natasha in a fierce hug. “No more tunnels, never again.”

\---

            It’s dark when they reach Omashu, and Steve has to admit that he’s not really in the mood for sightseeing. They make the trudge to the organization’s station, and then go back to the rooms that Tony rented for the night. They’re lavish and expensive, and Steve would complain except that he really can’t summon the energy at the moment.

            He can’t sleep again that night – his mind is too caught up with crooked organization members and the look in Tony’s eyes. He walks the floor until he finds Natasha, almost unsurprisingly standing guard over a sleeping Clint and Phil.

            “You thought Clint and I were together,” she says as soon as Steve enters the room, and he nods. No use hiding it.

            “You have to admit,” he says, “You seem a little bit in love.” Natasha’s smile is sweet and slightly teasing, as if she knows something he doesn’t.

            "We thought we were in love once, and we were wong. I do love him, but the type of love you're thinking of is a child's dream - full of daisy chains and shooting stars and tears. What Clint and I have is different, what we have is ours and ours alone." And Steve sees the look she gives Clint, his mouth open and drool beginning to pull lightly on a similarly unconcious Phil's shoulder. The look is a bond forged by fire and pain, by two people who have seen the worst of the world and the worst of each other and instead of twisting it into something ugly created together something beautiful and rare. It's hundreds of burning nights and bloody days, secret smiles and butterfly kisses. It makes Steve ache, that look.

             "Love is complicated." is all Steve says, because all of the people he loved are dead but he thinks he  might love this bizarre little family he's become attached to. Not in the way that Phil loves Clint, and not in the way that Clint loves Natasha, but in his own way. Natasha looks towards the door, past the door, as if she sees someone Steve can't.

             "Love is very complicated, and all we can do is try our best. The writing in the cave was right - love is brightest in the dark. Fortunate, becase we're always in the dark when it comes to love."

\---

             Steve doesn't remember when he falls asleep, but he knows it was to the feeling of Natasha's fingers slowly carding through his hair. It's a familiar feeling, a calming feeling, one that Steve hasn't been able to shake since he woke up. It's as if someone else was doing that to him recently, someone he can't quite remember.

 

*

*  
*

*

ArtistAnon is back! And this time that wonderful person brings us:

[WATERBENDER STEVE](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6wu1zQcQ71roth60o1_1280.png)

it's awesome. Seriously. Steve's outfit here is awesome. And the bun on the top of his head. Yes. Perfect.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp! Did you have fun?
> 
> 1) I am so sorry that I debauched a song from Avatar like that. Really, really I am.  
> 2) Let me apologize again for the slow build that is this fic. It took forever for Bruce to arrive, Thor's still not here, and you know what Steve and Tony aren't getting together for a bit. But you saw some Clint/Coulson here! So at least you'll always have that.  
> 3) I did not write the story of Omashu, or the first verse of the Girls in Ba Sing Se - that's all the writers of Avatar  
> 4) Harley is fucking hard to include in story lines because the Avengers don't normally have a giant saber tooth moose lion with them.  
> 5) If you're ever super bored and feel like hearing my random thoughts on this fic on tumblr, just take a look into the avatar the last avenger tag on tumblr. I promise to put more of my ramblings there.
> 
> as per the usual - questions, comments concerns - you know what to do


	7. The City of Omashu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Sorry that this chapter took so long - I've got a job now and a slightly busier life now. But uh, this is also the longest chapter yet? So that's something.  
> Anyways, as always I hope you enjoy.

“Wow.”

            It was really the best word to describe the towering mass that was Omashu. Even as a poor kid on the streets, Steve had never gotten tired of looking up towards the top of the city – with its nebulas pathways and crowded nooks and crannies, it had maintained its striking beauty no matter how many times he saw it. Now, 70 years in the future, it had only grown in its elegance. Bucky always thought that it looked like a golden ribbon on a present waiting to be unwrapped; Steve thought it was a rich lemon cake with green tea frosting. Many people moved to Omashu expecting the streets to be paved with gold and for glamour to tile the roofs – which would make Steve snort because he could tell you from experience how untrue that was – but even though that wasn’t exactly the case, there was something special about Omashu that he had never been able to find anywhere else. No other city had attempted to take the earth and push it into the clouds.

            “You said it,” Tony breathes next to him, and Steve looks down in surprise at the other man’s presence, “It never gets old does it? This city.” Tony’s eyes remain on the upper levels of Omashu above them, and Steve shakes his head.

            “I wouldn’t have pegged you for a fan of Omashu, it doesn’t exactly have a lot in common with your typical Fire Nation city.” Steve had thought Tony would rather thrive on the industrial beaches of the Fire Nation, under the heat of the sun and in the company of several scantily clad women, maybe.

            “I’m able to appreciate many different forms of beauty,” The wink Tony gives him sends a flush right up Steve’s neck, and he’s glad when the others decide to join them at that moment. Clint shields his eyes against the sun and gives the city an appraising look.

            “I could get used to a place up there... for a little while, at least.” He barks out a laugh and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

            “Think you’d get bored of the view?” because Steve doesn’t ever think he could get tired of a sight like that, and from what he knows of Clint he didn’t think the archer would either.

            “Nah, that’s not it,” Clint shrugs, “I just don’t like settling in one place for too long.” His eyes dart briefly to Phil’s, but the airbender remains silent.

            “Well, we better get going.” Natasha says as she pulls Clint forwards a little. Steve nods – the plan was for them all to split up for the morning. Tony had his meeting and he was bringing Bruce with him, while the organization members had some sort of mission debriefing to report in on. Apparently Fury wasn’t lying when he said they wouldn’t be babysitting Steve, they really had business in Omashu. Pepper and Happy were getting the morning off because, as Tony put it, “the lovebirds deserve some time on their own!” Pepper had smiled politely and told Steve that he was making up for the fiasco that had been their honeymoon. Steve wasn’t sure what their plans were for today, but he’d heard Happy ask Tony something about opera tickets.

            They had all been vaguely apologetic about leaving Steve alone, but he didn’t really mind. Honestly, there were a few things he wanted to see for himself, experience for himself. He had been in the constant companionship of this team for the past several weeks, and if he was honest he needed the smallest break. He wasn’t sure he wanted them there when he reconnected with his past. Plus it was already difficult enough to walk around with a giant saber tooth moose lion, he didn’t need to add a group of 7 other people to the mix.

            “You’re sure you’ll be okay?” Phil asks him, right before they leave, and Steve offers him a smile filled with tried patience. This was the fourth time the airbender had asked him that question this morning, and his answer wasn’t changing.

            “Yes, I’ll be fine. I know I’m technically 92 but I’m not going senile yet.” Phil seems to finally accept this answer, and he walks away with Natasha and Clint.

            “See you later, Steve.” Bruce says, as he and Tony head off on their own, leaving just Steve and Harley. The moose lion ducks his head and paws impatiently at the ground, and Steve gives him a small scratch between the eyes.

            “Well buddy, I guess that just leaves the two of us then.” Steve shifts the pack on his back ever so slightly before walking down the street, with Harley trailing at his heels. If he thought there had been differences in the Northern Water Tribe after 70 years, it had nothing on the city of Omashu. It seemed like everywhere he went, a house had been put up or a street widened. It was the same city – the same hustle and bustle, the same mixture of dirt, fresh produce, and perfume in the air – and yet everything was different.

            “I wonder when people began wearing their hair so short…” Steve mutters, but that isn’t really the question he wanted to ask. When did the Jin Lee’s book store become a noodle shop, when did the grime that used to layer the floors of the tiny alleyways get cleaned up, when did the gaggle of young girls Steve used to see sitting outside the florist’s become grandmothers? When the hell did that one cabbage stand multiply so that it seemed to be on every corner?  

            Steve doesn’t stop to wonder about any of this though, doesn’t stare at the girls with too tight clothing, or the crumbling buildings that had been brand new the last time he had seen them. He knows where he’s going – despite everything that’s different he knows where he’s going – until he suddenly doesn’t anymore. He sucks in one quick breath, and then too, places his hand against the wall where he knows, _he knows_ there used to be an alley. Steve had thought that maybe, just maybe, it would still be here. He thought that even with all of the changes, the alley would remain. For one crazy moment he considers just earthbending the alley back into existence, but that would be ridiculous. It’s not here anymore, it’s gone. Just like Bucky, just like Peggy, just like everyone else. Slowly, Steve leans his forehead against the cool stone, and then sinks to the ground. He doesn’t know how long he stays like that, but he can feel Harley getting impatient and then -

            “Excuse me, young man?” Steve opens his eyes to see an old woman coming a bit too far into his personal space. She smiles quickly at his attention, and turns to the woman that Steve assumes to be her wife, “See? I told you he wasn’t dead.” The other woman merely rolls her eyes. “Young man, you and your moose lion look very strong… would you mind helping a couple of old ladies with some heavy lifting?”

            “Who are you calling old?” The other woman asks with a smirk, “I’m fresh as a daisy!”

            “Yes dear, you’re an eternal fountain of youth, an ageless flower, a timeless classic. However, I don’t think even you are able to lift 200 lbs bags of flour.” The other woman seems to concede this point, and the first woman turns back to Steve, “So young man, will you help us?” There’s something approaching familiar about her face, about the way she carries herself and wears her hair. Steve is sure he’s never met her before, but he can’t shake off the feeling of remembrance.

            “It would be my pleasure.”

\---

            “If you would just _look_ at the prototype, I’m sure you would be interested!”

            Bruce hadn’t wanted to go to Tony’s meeting, not really. Even back when he had been in the world of research and development, before he had to worry about frayed nerves and green skin, he was never very good at the people part of it. Never had the charm of someone like Tony Stark, the utter frankness of Reed Richard, or the annoying persistence of Hank Pym. Bruce had himself, his work, and his honesty. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always get you very far with sponsors. He had been lucky, he told himself at the time, that Betty’s father had given his work even a cursory glance. What a joke.

            He had expected to walk into this meeting and have Tony dazzle and impress; Bruce had seen a presentation of his once years ago, and had walked away with stars in his eyes. However, the head of Cabbage Corp had barely let Tony explain his idea before asking him to leave.

            “Don, how long have we known each other?” Tony asks, leaning over Don Jin’s desk.

            “Tony, don’t play that card-“

            “How. Long.” Tony’s stare bores into Don, and Bruce sees the man look left, then right, then anywhere but Tony’s eyes.

            “Since we were kids-“

            “And have you ever known me to create anything less than spectacular?” Tony tosses a grin out to the other man, but Don just frowns. Bruce knows the things that Stark Industries has created, and he knows what the other man is thinking of. He’s sure that Tony knows as well, yet he doesn’t back down. “Look Don, you can picture it – Starkmobiles, on every street.”

            “I think you might have better luck asking Janet van Dyne for help-“ Don starts to interject but Tony just throws up his hands in the air in exasperation.

            “It’s not about the money Don! Believe me, I _have_ the money, it’s about… fuck, how did Pepper put it this morning… it’s about partnership! It’s about building ties that will last in the future. It’s about _creating_ the future, together. Starkmobiles should be run on Cabbage Corp Fuel.” That much Bruce could verify was true – the numbers just make sense, and in the past week and a half that he had spent with Tony in his workshop, he had yet to see a better fuel source with as few environmental problems. It really was a brilliant idea, and Bruce was proud to be even a small part of it. Don Jin, however, did not seem to care about the numbers. Or at least not those numbers.

            “Look Tony,” he says with a shake of his head, “it just wouldn’t be good for Cabbage Corp to partner with Stark Industries right now. Not with you running around like some crazy firebender, in cahoots with Nick Fury. That’s not even mentioning your problems with Obadiah Stane and the weapons dealing.” Tony’s smile – if you could call it that, Bruce thought it looked more like a fox bearing its teeth – disappears and he pushes himself off of the desk.

            “I had nothing to do with that.” His voice is quiet, calm, except that Bruce has heard that calm in his own voice and he knows that it is a storm that follows. The two men stare at each other for a moment, and Bruce has seen the look on Don Jin’s face before. _Sorry, we’re not interested right now, maybe next time Dr. Banner._

            “No,” Don says, “you didn’t. Or so you claim.” Bruce sees Tony’s eyes widen, sees the shouts and the anger on his lips, but Don continues, “However, a partnership with Stark Industries is not the image that Cabbage Corp wants to cultivate right now. I’m sorry Tony.” Don reaches out his hand, but Tony doesn’t move.

            “No,” he finally says, “you’re not. But you will be.” He spins on his heel and gestures for Bruce to follow him out the door. Until they exit the Cabbage Corp building, Bruce is a little worried that Tony isn’t breathing, but then they’re outside and he sees Tony stop and kick hard at the wall, his breathing a harsh attempt at control.

            “Are you sure it was smart to leave it at that?” Bruce asks, and Tony looks up in confusion, “It’s just that… it sounded like a threat. I’m not sure that someone accused of arms dealing wants to be handing out threats to people in charge of big-league corporations.” Tony lets out a breath that turns into a soft laugh. He leans against the wall of a house and fixes Bruce with a look.

            “First off, I know all about people in charge of big-league corporations. Believe me, I know what to do and what not to do around them. Second, it sounded like a threat because it was a threat. Oh, not a threat of violence, don’t give me that look Bruce. But one day, Starkmobiles are going to be in every home, and on every street, powered by clean, fuel efficient energy. They’re going to do benders and nonbenders alike a world of good, and Cabbage Corp is going to _wish_ they had been a part of it.” He starts walking past Bruce then, a determination in his step that Bruce doesn’t quite understand.

            “Where are we going?”

            “We,” Tony says with a grin, “are going to go find Steve and have a little bit of fun in this city.”

\---

            “I can’t even begin to believe that the Avatar is having tea in our shop!” Estelle, the woman who first found Steve, practically crows with delight after he’s done telling his tale. “I was always your biggest fan when I was a little girl,” which is a statement that causes a complex twist of emotion in Steve’s chest, “I even saw you when you first went into the Avatar state! Hiding behind my mother’s skirts because I was so afraid of the glowing light in your eyes,” she giggles and her wife, Mei Lee, rolls her eyes affectionately.

            “And now you have him doing physical labor for you.”

            “He doesn’t mind, it’s his job to help the people. Besides, I’ve paid him in tea. Isn’t that right Avatar?”

            “Please, call me Steve, and this tea is delicious.” It even beats Bruce’s tea, which is saying something. “So, Estelle, you’ve lived in Omashu your whole life?”

            “For all of my years,” Estelle’s smile is proud, and maybe a little wistful.

            “Do you ever…” Steve pauses for a moment, “do you ever miss the way it used to be? When you were a little girl?” He’s only a little annoyed when she laughs at him.

            “Oh Steve, you’re so young.” Her eyes shine as she looks at him, and the age difference between them becomes apparent for the first time.

            “I’m 92.”

            “No, you’re not.” No, he isn’t, but he should be. He watches as Estelle gets up and walks across the room, to where a painted portrait hangs on the wall. Next to it is one of those new-fangled Photographs that Tony had been teaching him about. Steve wasn’t sure how he felt about them, he wasn’t sure anything could compare to an artist’s take on the situation. Both pictures depict a couple of girls, in the painting they are young and beautiful, and in the photograph they are old and refined, but the warmth between them remains the same. “Do I sometimes wonder at new fashions, and miss old friends and old places? Yes, of course I do, and if I was wrenched away from them like you were I’m sure the pain would be terrible.” She turns back and gives Mei Lee a smile before looking at Steve, “Let me ask you Steve, do you miss being at war with the Fire Nation?”

            “Of course not-“

            “Do you miss being homeless on the street?”

            “No but-“

            “You Earth Kingdom folk,” Mei Lee says, “you’re stubborn and unyielding. You grow and flourish, and yet it is at such a pace that you don’t realize the necessity of change.” Steve raises his eyebrows in surprise.

            “You’re not from the Earth Kingdom?”

            “Does that taste like Earth Kingdom tea?” Steve will admit that there is something a little different about the tea, “I’m from the Fire Nation islands, I moved here about a decade after the war ended.” Steve did not know that was possible. It wasn’t, when he was last around, but he likes the idea of it. It might be easier to achieve balance if they can all learn to live together.

            “We wouldn’t have met if not for the changes brought by the end of the war,” Estelle takes her wife’s hand and holds it to her lips, “this life wouldn’t exist without change.” Okay. Okay. Steve is starting to see their point. “The people in your life will define you, young Avatar, and they come into your life for good reasons. Instead of mourning what is lost, celebrate what you have been given. Life is about making memories, not drowning in them.”

\---

            “So I take it that you found Dr. Banner.”

            Natasha looks at Clint, Clint looks at Phil, and Phil looks at the ceiling. He hadn’t expected Fury to take an air bison to Omashu, but now that he was here… Phil could hardly lie to him. After all, finding the man was one of the reasons that they had been sent out on this journey.

            “Yes sir,” Phil finally says, “Dr. Banner is accounted for.”  But he doesn’t say anymore. Phil has always been a man who put duty first, who trusted his directions to the utmost, and now something is telling him that his duty lies somewhere else. _This is a test_ , a voice says in his mind, and he agrees even if he’s not sure what he’s being tested for.

            “Where is the good doctor right now?” Fury looks at them expectantly, but the trio remains silent for the time being, then Natasha speaks.

            “Banner is with Stark, the man won’t let him out of his sight.” There is no missing the twitch of Fury’s good eye, or the tenseness of his mouth.

            “Someone please tell me why Stark has been trusted with possession of Banner, instead of having him brought here?”

            “Because he doesn’t _trust you.”_ Clint spits out, and Phil holds his breath briefly to keep from showing any emotion. Phil knows that Clint doesn’t trust Fury, or the organization. His loyalty lies with Phil and Natasha, and he’s never pretended otherwise. He abides by the rules, Phil knows, because he has too, not because he wants to. It’s not a point of contention between them, just a set of separate ideals. However, Phil occasionally wishes that Clint was a little less obvious in his distaste for authority (no he doesn’t, because then Clint would be someone else and Phil doesn’t want to love anyone else).

            “I don’t care if the motherfucker doesn’t _trust me_ , we need to keep tags on Bruce Banner’s whereabouts at all times!”

            “With all due respect General Fury,” Phil intones, unconsciously stepping into the space between Clint and the one-eyed man, “I believe we are doing just that. Banner and Stark are to be at a meeting with Cabbage Corp all morning, and then Dr. Banner will head back to Stark’s ship with us. His room is just between Clint and Natasha’s, and I also keep a close monitor on the man’s whereabouts and behavior. I would assert that this is the best course of action for Banner’s immediate future.” He holds Fury’s gaze, knows that to look away is to show doubt and surrender, and finally Fury offers him something that might be a grin, but is more likely a smirk.

            “Alright airbender, I’ll let you continue on with Dr. Banner in your company. I know a lost argument when I see it.” He turns away from Phil for a moment, gathering papers, and Phil lets out a breath. He’s relieved of course that Fury took him at his word, but something doesn’t feel right here. General Fury never knows a lost argument, no matter how many times it slaps him across the face. He catches Natasha’s shuttered look and Clint’s raised eyebrows, and he knows they’re thinking the same thing.

            “So… just to be clear, that means you agree that Bruce and Tony can continue to play science-bros?” Clint can’t keep the cynicism out of his voice, but Director Fury doesn’t react.

            “Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Now listen up, we have more important things to discuss.” He turns around with a map and a handful of mission reports, and lays them out on the table in front of him. Phil immediately scans the mission reports, and can’t immediately come up with anything tying them together. They’re from different parts of the world, and they deal with everything from raiders to corrupt politicians. On the surface, there is no direct link. However he lets Fury explain before saying anything. “The reports in front of you all come from the past year. While they may not look similar at first, further investigation shows that the antagonist from each report has passed through the Fire Nation in the past year.”

            “The Fire Nation is a big place, might not mean anything.” Phil knows when Clint is just being difficult, and so does Fury, so the other man continues.

            “It might not, except for the fact that they’ve all come into contact with a very _specific_ merchant.”

            “Did he sell them all the same dress? I hate when my friends buy the same clothes as me, honestly there’s no such thing as originality anymore-“ Phil hears the small oof Clint emits when Natasha kicks him lightly in the shin.

            “No, we can’t figure out what he sold them. It doesn’t look like anything, no common possession was found among their belongings. However, we’re almost certain that these are attacks are all being sponsored by the same source.” Phil knows it’s either a hell of a coincidence, or a very dangerous beginning, and there is no such thing as coincidences in their line of work.

            “They allowed themselves to be caught…” Phil starts, and he lets Natasha to finish.

            “It’s a warning.” There’s a silence as the meaning of the words sink in, and already Phil is running the situation through his head. Where they’ll need to go, what they’ll need to do, a list of contacts in the Fire Nation. Oh yes, he knows what Fury is going to say.

            “Yes, a warning. Natasha, Clint, you two are the experts on criminal rings,” Phil will have to listen to Clint swear like a sailor for at least 8 minutes before he’s able to shut him up with a kiss because of that one, “I’m sending the three of you up to the Fire Nation.” Yup, there it is.  “You will make the situation known to the Avatar, Stark, and Banner, and you will continue your journey on Stark’s boat. Am I clear?”

            It’s only long years of practice that keep Phil’s eyes from widening comically. The Avatar, sure, this is the Avatar’s job, and really he should have thought to bring Steve with them. He didn’t, in the end, because Steve’s face had worn a tired look of longing when he last saw him, and Phil knew that he needed this time to himself. He never, in a million years, thought they would bring Stark in on this. Phil would have suggested Stark, because at the end of the day he knew what the man was worth, but he never thought that Fury knew the same.

            “Yes sir.” He finally responds, and then Fury clears the three of them to leave. They walk out silently, but Phil doesn’t miss the way that Clint leers at the new recruits, or the coy smile of Natasha’s that Phil knows sends shivers down newbie’s spines, he maintains his patented stoic look; they all play their roles so well. Once they’re outside though, out from under the gazes of their fellow organization members; that’s when they break character. Natasha chews her lip as her eyes dart around, Clint taps his fingers erratically against his bow, while Phil sighs and rubs his arrow.

            “There are two types of people who send warnings,” Clint starts, “assholes, and powerful assholes. Tony and Fury are both on our side though, so that rules out two suspects.” Phil smiles, because he can’t help it, because something big is coming and in the future there might be a time where he can’t smile, so he smiles and bumps Clint’s shoulder lightly before walking on.

            “C’mon. Time to go find Stark.”

\---

Finding Steve had presented a small problem that honestly Tony really should have figured on beforehand if he wanted to keep calling himself a futurist. They had never settled on a meeting place other than their rooms, and given the early ending to the meeting, he was pretty sure Steve wouldn’t be at the hotel yet. And you would _think_ that asking after a 6’2” blond with a saber tooth moose lion would yield some results, but then you would be wrong. Tony was very wrong today, and he didn’t like it.

            “Maybe we should wait for him back at the inn,” Bruce suggests awkwardly, but Tony nixes that idea. He is Tony fucking Stark, and if he wants to find the Avatar and give him a present then he will damn well do that. They’ve been looking for almost an hour already, wandering through the crisscrossing streets of Omashu, and okay maybe Tony is beginning to get a little tired of it all, when he sees the moose parked next to a building.

            “Found him.” Tony walks up to the building, _The Jade Dragon_ , some kind of tea shop maybe? He sniffs the air gingerly – yep, definitely a tea shop… and that is Steve’s laugh coming from inside. Tony would know that laugh anywhere. “Hey! Captain Avatar!” He bursts into the store and is actually mildly surprised to see Steve seated at a table, enjoying a fresh cup of tea with a group of gray-haired ladies. Hm. Never picked Steve as the sort to go for older women, but people could surprise you.

            “Oh!” Steve looks up, “Tony, and Bruce. Hi.”

            “We’ve been looking for you!”

            “Steve spent the day helping us with our new orders of loose tea leaves,” one of the old ladies says, and of course he did, because he’s the Avatar and objectively one of the nicest people Tony has ever met. This morning, before they split up, he coaxed a little girl’s cat out of a tree. He spent a full hour last night comforting the girl with the dead father. Of course he would help little old ladies with their tea.

            There’s a moment of painful silence then, where it’s clear that they have no idea what to say to each other, and Tony wishes, he _wishes_ that something would come naturally, but nothing does. So he falls back on old instincts.

            “Got anything stronger than just tea in this place?” Tony means it as a joke (almost, it has been a hell of a day) but the woman on Steve’s left purses her lips.

            “Sorry, this is an alcohol free environment.” Tony sees the look she shoots the woman next on Steve’s right, and its one he’s familiar with. It’s every look Pepper had given him at a benefit ball for the past two years, it’s the concern on Rhodey’s face when Tony done in, let out, and worn down, it’s the crease between Happy’s eyes when Tony eyes linger on the bar for too long, it’s… well Tony really only has three friends, doesn’t he. In short, he knows what that look means, so he cracks a smile and laughs.

            “That sounds like the sort of place I need to be right now.” He doesn’t pay any mind to the question on Steve’s face, or the look of understanding on the old woman’s, “Listen, I know that lovely ladies such as yourselves want nothing more than to hang off the arm of a strapping man such as Steve here,”

            “Tony-“

            “But I need to borrow him, for… well the rest of the afternoon, at least.” The woman on Steve’s right smiles broadly and ushers Steve out of his seat.

            “Of course dear. Steve, thank you for all of your help, but you really should be out with kids your own age, instead of keeping us old gals company.” An emotion crosses over Steve’s face so fast that if Tony had blinked he would have missed it. Steve doesn’t protest, just hugs the old woman close.

            “I’ll be back one day Estelle, thank you for everything.”

            The three of them exit the shop, and then Harley keeps pace with them. Tony is going up, and the rest follow.

            “How was the meeting?” Steve asks, and it is a completely innocent question that make Tony’s insides twist with rage, but Steve doesn’t need to know about that so he just shrugs.

            “Fine. Couldn’t quite see eye to eye though, so I think Bruce and I will just develop the fuel on our own.” Bruce gives him a look but doesn’t say anything. Tony knew he liked him for a reason.

            “That’s too bad.”

            “Maybe not.” Because the last thing Tony Stark is going to do is admit what a fucking inconvenience this was, what a failure he was. He’s not going to talk about the fact that Don Jin, who he had known since his diaper days, wouldn’t fucking give him the time of day. Two levels up and he’s almost quelled the rage, but then he sees one of those fucking Cabbage Corp Cabbage Stands and it’s back with a vengeance, swelling in his heart and –

            “Hey, do you think we can stop here for lunch?” and of course Steve is interested in eating there. Tony gives him a smile that is only slightly pained.

            “Nah, best not to eat right now, maybe in a little while,” and that is honest, Tony isn’t sure anyone should eat before doing what they’re about to do. Steve shrugs.

            “Sure. You know, 70 years ago I never would have thought that Cabbage Corp was going somewhere. Bucky he… he used to steal a head of cabbage, every now and then, just to keep us going. But when I could, I would pay for it.” He smiles fondly at the memory for a second, “it was pretty good, actually.” It takes a moment for that to register, but then Tony can see it. Cultivate a good image? Tony is friends with The Avatar! The Avatar who _likes Cabbage Corp cabbages!_ There isn’t a better image around and… Tony looks at that smile again, and shakes his head. He could never make Steve into some publicity stunt. The guy deserves better than that.

            “Sounds like you have a lot of memories in this city,” Bruce says, and Steve shrugs.

            “Memories, that’s about all I’ve got. I went to find the place where Bucky and I used to live – it wasn’t much, just a little place in this alley – but it was all filled in.” Steve lets out a laugh that could pass as bitter, “Mei Lee and Estelle found me there. You know, I asked them if there was any place left that was associated with the last Avatar. I wasn’t really expecting any, but Estelle said that the place where the Av- where I first went into the Avatar state has a plaque. She said she was there, apparently, when it happened.”

            “Did you go see it?” Tony had actually considered taking Steve there, and had decided against it at the last moment. He’s a little grateful though, to see Steve shake his head.

            “No. I decided to have some tea with their friends instead.” He says it with a curious smile, and Tony is about to ask more about it when a tomato whizzes past his head.

            “What the-“ another tomato splatters at his feet and then Tony knows what’s going on. He doesn’t know how, exactly, Clint is launching the tomatoes, but he knows no one else would be a big enough asshole to do it. “Fuck you, you stupid archer! These pants were pretty fucking expensive, and if you get them dirty then Pepper will kill me which means that I will kill you!”

            “Gonna be hard to kill me when you’re dead already.” Clint steps out from behind him, because of course it’s from behind him, and he’s chuckling. That asshole.

            “You know what? Just for that, you don’t get to be part of my surprise.” Tony says before crisply walking away.

            “What? No! I want to be a part of the surprise!” Clint whines, but Tony keeps walking. He swears, not even his fear of Phil and Natasha combined will make him let the archer in on the fun.

            “Tony, be nice.” Steve’s reproachful voice though, that might work. Tony rolls his eyes and shrugs – an acceptance – and the three organization members join the trek.

            “Where exactly are we going Stark?”

            “Almost there…” There’s just one more level of Omashu to climb before they get there. Steve is telling the organization members all about Mei Lee and Estelle and The Jade Dragon. He swears it’s the best tea he’s ever had in his life, and that’s saying something considering the stuff Bruce serves. “We’re here.”

            They’re stopped at the top of the delivery shoots of Omashu. Long stone runways descend from this area and spread out all over the city, and it’s pretty easy to see where Bucky got the idea of a giant roller coaster from (because somehow Tony sincerely doubts it was Steve’s idea).

            “Tony…” Steve breathes, and what is that funny feeling in Tony’s chest.

            “Well,” he shrugs, “You said that you wanted to ride one of these things again and you know, I can’t exactly get rid of a giant stone wall, but I just thought…” He’d had the thought last night, actually, but seeing Steve today surrounded by a bunch of old woman and realizing that Steve technically _belonged_ with them was somewhat jarring. And then there was that story about the alley way and… Tony knew he had to get Steve up here quickly.

            “I didn’t think you were really paying attention,” Steve mutters and okay that’s maybe a little mean but Tony guesses that he deserves it. “I thought you said they were closed off though?”

            “Bribery will get you a lot of places in this city,” It had really been more expensive than Tony thought it would be, but that was fine. Money wasn’t exactly the biggest object for him. It’s funny, because he expected Phil to chastise him in some way, but he never really thought Steve’s face would cloud over like that. Steve gives the rest of their group a small look before walking off a little ways.

            “Tony, a word.” Tony follows, but he can already feel his irritation building.

            “Whatever you’re about to say-“

            “Tony you can’t just – just –“

            “Just what? Do nice things?” Irritation, panic, and a shade of burnished pride well up in Tony’s throat. He was just trying to make one, simple, nice gesture, and of course the fucking Avatar finds it offensive. Of course he couldn’t even get this right.

            “You can’t just bribe people and break laws!” Steve throws his hands up into the air and Tony scowls. He can do whatever he likes, thank you very much. “You can’t just use money and influence to make a good impression!” Which is a joke because hello, they are far past first impressions at this point. Tony had reneged his original one, but now he wasn’t so sure.

            “Well excuse me, for trying to do something for you,” he growls, “you’re all doom and gloom about old memories and lost friends and I-“

            “I wasn’t,” Steve interrupts, “I mean I was, but then I wasn’t…” He stares at Tony for a long moment before taking a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” What. “I overreacted. It was very thoughtful for you to take me up here and I… I’m not used to thoughtfulness being expressed in such a… unique way.” Unique here definitely means illegal and deplorable, but Tony is okay with that, as long as Steve is appreciating his gift. “But Tony? No more throwing your money at things, okay?”

            “Unless money helps the situation.” And money can usually help the situation. Except for today, when money and influence did diddly squat (but it got him this one free ride and wasn’t that something for Steve?).

            “Money can’t fix everything, and in the future I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t… do things like this,” and Steve’s voice sounds so final, and so sad, that Tony lets the subject drop. Or. Well. Sort of drops it. Because he needs to know if they’re going to actually do this or not and time is ticking. “Yes Tony, we can ride the delivery shoot. You’ve paid for it; the least we can do is let the corruptiveness of the city not go to waste.”

            It takes three carts to hold them all – Clint with Phil, Natasha with Bruce (who swears that something like won’t cause him to lose his cool and Natasha just smiles somewhat worriedly), and… Tony isn’t sure how he ended up with Steve, but he did, and he’s not going to complain about sitting in front of a gorgeous blond. Speeding down the pathways is unlike anything Tony has ever quite experienced. There’s the impact of the wind on his face, and the drop of his stomach on the downhill, and yeah Steve wasn’t kidding, there is the brief fear of his mortality. However by the time they reach the end (thank god the end they’re alive they’re alive they haven’t been crushed into a bloody pulp) Steve’s smile is bright as ever and that musical laughter is spilling past his lips. Tony can feel the rumble of it in Steve’s chest, and he doesn’t know why but he gets a little heady at the feeling of it. Probably just the air whizzing past his face.

            “How was that?” he asks once they reach the bottom, “As good as your time with Bucky?”

            “Different,” Steve says, “and that’s good. Thank you, Tony.”

            Despite everything, Tony thinks, it’s been a good day. Or at least it was, until they get back to the hotel and Natasha explains the new situation to them. Fuck. Tony had just gotten Steve happy again and now the stupid organization with their stupid bad guys have gotten him all tense and angry. Hell, they’ve gotten Tony all tense and angry. He doesn’t need the Fire Nation to be the bad guys again, but if a merchant in the Fire Nation is their only link... Well what can you do. This is his life now, and it’s Steve’s destiny.

             After their debriefing, and the assurances of “first thing is first, you should learn firebending, which will put us in a prime location anyways” Steve gets up and leaves the room, white knuckled and thin lipped. About twenty minutes or so later, Tony follows. He knocks softly at Steve’s door, and receiving no answer, he takes that as a sign he should enter. He finds Steve perched by the window sill, molding and remolding a bit of earth in his hand.

            “Still blaming yourself for not being there? For not stopping this thing 70 years ago?” Tony asks, because this time around Steve really shouldn’t blame himself at all. He’s pleased to see Steve shake his head. They’re making progress, apparently.

            “No. Not this time. This is just something I need to deal with in the now, and not think about the past,” the words sound like a recitation of some sort, then Steve lets out a sigh, as if he’s preparing for something, and looks at Tony, “I know I get angry with you Tony. I know we get angry with each other because let’s face it – you’re not the easiest man in the world to get along with,” Tony has been called worse things in his life, and he can’t exactly disagree, “but uh. I just want to thank you. For… for talking to me, and being honest with me,” Where is this coming from, is Steve planning on running away? Is this his good bye speech? “I don’t have a lot of friends right now, and I’m glad to count you among them.” The words are hesitant, unsure steps over thin ice, as if Steve is just figuring out this friendship as he speaks. Mostly what Tony hears is the word friend and fuck him sideways and call him a rabiroo, Tony Stark might actually have more than three friends now. Will wonders never cease?

            “Tony!” Steve looks offended, what just happened? “Everyone on this ship is your friend!” Woops. Did he say that last bit out loud? “Honestly, we’ve all been at sea together for over a month now, you’ve saved my life at least twice, I think we’ve earned the right to call each other friends.”

            “I don’t know,” Tony murmurs, “I never thought you were one to put out before the third date.”

            “Tony.” Steve blushes slightly but Tony can tell the graveness of the conversation is lifting. There it is – the Steve smile. Steve can only see the best in people, it’s why each crime they’ve come against hits him so hard - he honestly wants to _believe_ in people. Tony’s learned the hard way that that gets you nothing. So he’ll take this for now, this friendship, but come next month, or the month after that, when Steve gets tired of Tony’s bullshit (like he did today, except next time there’ll be no deep breath and careful consideration, there will just be anger and hurt) he’ll be gone, and Tony will be okay. Tony will be just fine.

            “Okay. Friends. Sounds good.”

            Steve’s smile doesn’t matter at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOoooo Notes!
> 
> 1) I think Omashu is the prettiest city I've seen in Avatar (with the exception of Republic City, which doesn't exist here for obvious reasons)
> 
> 2) I don't normally like creating involved OCs, but I think Mei Lee (props to whoever guesses where name came from) and Estelle were sort of necessary for Steve's mental health. So yeah, hope you liked them.
> 
> 3) 616 Enters! Because I can't keep making up OCs, expect more people from 616 to be playing parts soon. Just in case you don't know who they are and then feel free to look them up kids, it's:  
> Janet van Dyne - The Wasp   
> Reed Richard - Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four  
> Hank Pym - Ant-Man 
> 
> 4) and Steve and Tony continue their slow progress. Yes. All is well.
> 
> and that's about all I've got to say. Uh. Questions, comments complaints -->


	8. The Hidden Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya!! I made much better time on this chapter, which I'm happy about.   
> WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER:  
> Bloody violence, and sexual content. Uh. Not together.

 While keeping tags on Tony wasn’t Pepper’s entire life anymore, it was still her job and thus a remarkably large part of it, so she had to notice a marked shift in his attitude since Omashu. Part of it, she knew, came from the knowledge of the recent attacks being coordinated through the Fire Nation. While that had put everyone slightly on edge, Pepper knew what it meant for Tony, and the trouble it might bring. Naturally she tried to talk to him about it, and naturally Tony was his usual difficult self.

            “No Pepper, this isn’t some prayer-circle where we share our feelings. I’m fine.”

            “Two people hardly constitutes a circle Tony-”

            “I’m sorry, who’s the engineering genius here?”

            “-and all I’m saying is that maybe you should take the time to sit down and work through your feelings-“

            “You might as well write ‘Tony Stark: Hippie Extraordinaire on my door!”

            “- Instead of just heading off back to the Fire Nation which we both know isn’t your _favorite_ place-

            “I’ll bet you’re the reason why I saw Happy tossing out that bottle of rum-“

            “Tony he was tossing out the rum because you’re an alcoholic and you weren’t supposed to have it on board anyways-“

            “It was for my guests! For the guests! What if Steve wanted a night cap?”

            “I think we both know that _Steve_ is the last person who would want a night cap, or Bruce for that matter, and organization members aren’t allowed alcohol while they’re on a mission so…” and then Tony’s eyes flashed and Pepper had gone a step too far for Tony that night, she knew it.

            “So I must have been planning to drink it, right?”

            “We’re just trying to help you Tony.”

            “You know,” Tony’s words were bitter and forced, “if I really wanted to drink, I would have a bottle in my hands right now,” and then he turned brusquely and walked out onto the deck. Pepper closed her eyes and sighed. It’s not that she didn’t trust Tony; honestly she was incredibly proud of him. He had been sober for the past two years, ever since that mess with Stane had sent him spiraling downward and landed him in Fury’s clutches. It was only that Pepper worried, a lot. After Tony had told her and Happy the news about the Fire Nation merchant, she had sent a telegram to Rhodey and his reply had come quickly: _Throw out the booze_. Pepper looked at Happy and he nodded: they would keep Tony safe from himself. Only…

            Only Tony never went for the booze, he didn’t go out for a night on the town and come back completely smashed with a girl on his arm and an embarrassing headline in the morning. He just stayed in the rooms, chatting amiably with the rest of the gang. He even teased Natasha, and that _never_ happened. Which brings Pepper to the second part of Tony Stark’s new personality change: his shipmates. Tony was getting along with them, which wouldn’t be strange because Pepper had accompanied Tony to enough benefits and galas to know that he could get along with the worst of them as long as they weren’t a Stark Industries board member. The strange thing was that this wasn’t Tony dressed to the nines and putting on a mask, or Tony floating so far up on champagne bubbles that he just didn’t care anymore, this was Tony sincerely enjoying the company of the people he’s with, and Pepper didn’t see that happen very often (or at all really, outside of Rhodey, Happy, and herself).

            Looking at Tony now, as he playfully knocks shoulders with Steve (and then causes him to spell his ink and grumbles about having to be the one to get a new bottle “no the deck is fine Steve we don’t need to clean it – it adds something to the character!”) Pepper has to admit, there’s something there that wasn’t there before. She sees it with all of them; the way Tony’s shoulders relax and he opens himself up, just the tiniest bit. However, she sees something different with Steve, something more. There’s a thoughtfulness to his movements and a softness to his eyes when he deals with the Avatar. Pepper hasn’t seen him smile like that since they were dating, which is an interesting comparison, and is what ultimately causes her to trust the Avatar.

            “You’re good for him, you know that?” she calls out, as soon as Tony has gone to look for the ink. Steve whirls around and smiles, but she can tell he’s a little confused by her comment.

            “Well, he’s the one who saved me from a block of ice.” Steve’s tone is light but his eyes are concerned. He takes a couple steps forward as Pepper leans casually on the railing of the ship.

            “Fire Nation society has never been good for Tony; it tends to create the worst in him. Honestly I think leaving to help General Fury and the organization is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”

            “You don’t want him to go back.” It’s not a question, and Pepper purses her lips in response.

            “I just want him to be safe. I want him to be protected, because despite what the metal he puts on might tell you, Tony has never been good at protecting himself.”

            “I’ve gathered that… but he’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it.” Steve chews on his lip briefly. Of course Steve doesn’t know what they need to protect Tony from. When Tony was raging against the dying of the light, Steve was trapped in the frozen waters of the north sea, and since it’s unlikely that Tony has told him anything about his past it’s safe to assume that Steve has no idea what the other man had been through in the past couple years. Not that Pepper will tell him, because if Tony really wants to have grown up relationships he’ll have to do that on his own.

\---

            Pepper’s words the other day had put Steve on somewhat of an alert. As they got closer to the Fire Nation though, nothing really seemed to change. Tony was still full of jokes, still prone to ruffling people’s feathers (yesterday they got into a ten minute shouting match over his leaving a jar of jam with its lid off; “It’s jam Steve! It’s not like it’s going to go bad!” “No Tony, but it can still make a mess and you need to be more considerate!”).

            True, there could be a couple days where he didn’t emerge from his workshop, and Steve wasn’t sure that he ate, but unfortunately that counted as regular behavior. Bruce was just as bad, so Steve sometimes found himself going down there to quietly nudge plates of food at the two of them. He found that if you could replace whatever tool Tony was reaching for with a sandwich, Tony’s autopilot would take over and he would end up eating the lunch. It was a good strategy, if Steve did say so himself. Still, despite Tony’s normal appearance, Steve couldn’t help but watch him more closely. He thought he was being covert about it, but…

            “You know, if you keep staring at him like that he’s going to spontaneously combust,” Natasha says conversationally as she dropss down next to Steve’s side.

            “And you’re the Avatar, so that might actually happen,” Clint adds, following a second behind.

            “I doubt even I could do that. I don’t think anyone can make something explode just by staring at it.”

            “I dunno, I’ve seen a lot of weird things in my life,” Clint says as he slices a piece of apple in his hand and gives it to Steve, then slices off pieces for himself and Natasha, “but seriously, you’ve been watching Tony like you really do expect him to blow-up at any moment. What gives?” He takes a bite of the apple slice and Steve stares at the two of them, considering.

            “What do you know about Tony’s past?” The looks on their faces tells Steve that they must know something (or maybe everything), but they’re not exactly forthcoming.

            “Look, I hate to quote one of Phil’s wacky monk sayings, but ‘the truth is a flower that should blossom at the source,’ or something like that.”

            “Clint’s mangled impression of Phil’s teaching is right; a person’s past is complicated, personal. How you confront it should be your own decision in the end.” Natasha’s words are final, and Steve knows he’s not going to get any information out of her. Plus she’s right, of course. If Tony wants to explain his past, then he will. He needs to make that decision for himself. In the meantime, Steve will watch, and protect.

\---

            They dock at one of the outer Fire Nation islands a couple days later. Unlike the last time, there is no real hurry to get back on board the ship. In fact, if anything Pepper seems anxious for them to spend as much time here as possible. She ushers them off the ship with a shopping list and a call of, “don’t be afraid to stay for a few extra days if something happens!”

            “What does she think is going to happen?” Tony mutters as they make their way across the beach. Bruce shrugs.

            “I mean, you have to admit, stuff does tend to happen to us a lot. We couldn’t even walk to Omashu in peace.”

            “We have a billionaire playboy, a scientist who gets possessed by a vengeful spirit, three organization members, and the Avatar. Stuff is always going to happen to us.”

            “You know Clint, technically I don’t get possessed _by_ Gamma.”

            “Whatever, you all agree with me.” They all did; weird things happened to them. It was nothing new for Steve, who hadn’t had a normal day in his life since he was 14. It was his destiny to solve the world’s problems, and because of that the world’s problems seemed to just fall into his lap. They get to the market, and it’s definitely a sight better than the last one they visited, which still sends a pang through Steve’s gut when he thinks about it. The town here though seems to be prosperous, with bustling people and stocked stalls. The carrots definitely don’t look like people, which Phil seems to approve of. They’ve finish buying supplies when Steve suggests a picnic down by the beach. It’s hailed as a good idea, because picnics are always good ideas.

            Sand has always felt a step off from normal earth, shift and shady in a way that solid rock never was, but Steve still likes to plunge his hands into and let the grains creep up his arm. However he feels something hard in ground, and it’s not a normal rock, it’s…

            “Glass?” he asks, pulling out the twisted form. It is indeed glass, and it’s absolutely beautiful, formed in a way that Steve is pretty sure hands could never produce.

            “There’s another one over here!” Clint calls, digging up the object and holding it into the light.

            “It’s the product of lightning hitting the sand,” Bruce explains, “the heat from the lightning melts it into glass. I’m not surprised, the Fire Nation islands are famous for having a lot of storms.” Of course at that moment, a strike of lightning hits the beach not 20 feet away from them. “Of course… it’s usually generated from a cloud…” Bruce mutters, looking up at the perfectly blue sky. Tony shakes his head.

            “That isn’t from a storm…”

            “Get back villain!” a voice booms out as a man runs towards them. He appears to be seriously running for his life, the fear on his face very real, and very potent. “Verily, I shall apprehend you!”

            “Thought so,” Tony mutters as another man runs towards them. Steve acts on instinct and grounds the first man’s legs into the sand, preventing him from moving. The second man looks in confusion for a second before his eyes fall on Tony.

            “Anthony! Anthony Stark!” Steve turns and his mouth falls slightly open. The guy running at them seems to be some sort of cross between a marble statue and a golden retriever; his long blond locks bounce around his head while his bulging muscle cause Steve to gape at the quickness of his movements. Steve is well aware of the prowess of his own body, but even he would take a step back from his guy. However he doesn’t look menacing, just excited, so Steve does nothing to stop him from picking Tony up in a crushing hug.

           “Thor… I can’t… breathe…” Tony manages to choke out, and the man – Thor – sets him down on the ground.

            “My friend! How happy I am to see you back in the Fire Nation!” The man turns on the rest of the group, and his face brightens even more “Son of Coul! You return as well! And with your lovely man-friend! It is an honor to see you again. Though, the Lady Darcy may not think so.” He goes in for the hug, but Phil tactfully offers his hand instead, while Clint preens a bit.

            “Listen to that, he thinks I’m a lovely man-friend.”

            “He just doesn’t know you yet,” Phil replies, and Clint gives him a dig with his elbow. Tony steps up and lightly taps Thor on the back.

            “Hey buddy, it is great to see you and everything, but I think you were just chasing this guy down?” Tony gestures to where the other man is sunk into the sand and Thor nods, suddenly serious.

            “Verily, this scoundrel did run from me. For he knows I am investigating the trouble afoot!”

            “Trouble?” Steve asks, because Pepper called it, Clint called it, everyone called it. They found trouble, and now Steve needs to fix it.

            “Aye, trouble. Come, we shall take him into custody and then feast together. It will be an honor to have the Avatar at our table.” Thor moves to pick the man up by the scruff of the neck while Steve blinks in surprise.

            “How did you know I was the Avatar?” Most people knew that the Avatar was back by now, but Steve wasn’t necessarily the most distinguishable of sorts. It wasn’t like he had a giant arrow on his head or anything.

            “All of the Fire Nation follows the news that Tony Stark travels with the Avatar. None more so than I, Thor Odinson: crown prince of the Fire Nation.”

            Oh.

\---

            Steve would be lying if he said he hadn’t been a little… worried… about possibly meeting a member of the Fire Nation royal family. The last crown prince he knew (probably Thor’s grandfather) had been a general in his father’s army as they tried to take over the rest of the world. Steve had lain awake at night, wondering if he would have to do the head of the Fire Nation in, and now here he was, having dinner to the right of the current crown prince in the beach home of the royal family. What a life he led.

            Thor himself was friendly to a fault, complimenting Natasha on the red of her hair (it shines like the brightest fire!) and whopping Bruce on the back while he goaded him into eating more (a warrior’s stomach should never be empty!). He didn’t even harbor any animosity towards Steve over the past.

            “As a young prince I grew up hearing of how the brave Avatar Steve sought to stop our nefarious great-grandfather in his mad quest for power. My brother and I would listen in awe to our father’s stories before we went to sleep. While I admit that I didn’t quite absorb the lesson in my youth, today I stand as a proud beacon of the Fire Nation’s quest for peace in this world!”

            “How is Loki these days? Still putting spider-crabs into people’s hair?” Tony’s tone is gruff but teasing, and Steve wonders how many evenings he spent playing with the two princes. Thor’s smile dims by half.

            “My brother is… unwell. I’m afraid that there was a family dispute and he… left. We have not heard from him in many a month.” Thor looks down into his food and Tony awkwardly pats his shoulder.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

            “Most people don’t. I would appreciate your discretion, Anthony.” Thor’s smile is rueful, and Tony nods.

            “Of course.”

            The rest of the dinner is tinted with a hint of awkwardness, but then Thor begins addressing them with new information.

            “When I was a lad, I angered my father and was sent to the Fire Nation islands as a punishment. Since then, I have grown as a person and as a warrior, and I promised these islands that should trouble ever come to their shores, I would make sure to protect them.” Thor pauses a moment to look at the lapping waves before continuing, “Recently, it came to my attention that things had been… not quite right. The presence of raiders and pirates had increased, the people were frightened – too frightened to call to me… I believe…” Thor lowers his voice, causing the others to lean into the conversation, “I believe I may have found a nefarious spy ring, nestled amongst my people.”

            Steve catches Phil’s eye. The islands were home to the biggest crossing of trade routes in the world; easy enough for a merchant with something to hide to make their base here. But the look in Phil’s eye is clear: Thor is not to be involved just yet.

            “Hey, if we can track them down maybe they’ll lead us to whoever was planning those attacks.” Tony, of course, has other ideas. Phil gets out of his seat with a cough and grabs Tony by the arm, pulling him out of the room and leaving the rest of them in silence.

            “So… Thor…” Clint pauses for a second, “what was that about me being lovely? Like, more or less lovely than Natasha?”

\---

            Of course there’s really no keeping the details from Thor after that, and he excitedly agrees to be a part of their hunt.

            “We shall catch these rogues and bring them to justice my friends!”

            He lends them rooms for the night in his family home, and Steve is slightly surprised when Natasha shows up at his door.

            “I think you should go check on Tony,” which is hardly what he expected her to say, “I’d do it myself, but I think he finds me a little too intimidating to listen to.”

            “I’m not intimidating?” Steve knows he’s not, but he needs to know what Natasha is getting at. She just smiles sweetly in response.

            “You’re Steve. Tony will listen to you.”

            At first Steve isn’t going to do it – Tony shouldn’t have talked to Thor about this, he broke protocol and that deserves whatever punishment he received - but then Steve finds himself searching for Tony, whether to admonish him or make sure that Phil didn’t snap his neck, he’s not sure. He finds Tony in his room, furiously penning out a letter.

            “No telegraph?” Steve’s approach was soft, and Tony looks up in surprise and then makes a face.

            “This island doesn’t even have telegraphs it’s that outdated. Stark Industries will definitely be doing a bit of investing here. Anyways the letter isn’t that important, just telling the house to have our rooms aired and ready by the time we arrive.”

            “The house?”

            “The house – my house, back on the mainland,” Tony continues after a moment of Steve’s blank look, “we’re going to need a base of operations in the Fire Nation obviously, if this thing is being set up here. It’s probably a little dusty though, haven’t used the place in years, so I’m just sending word ahead that we’ll be needing it. Pepper must be rubbing off on me or something… what?”

            “No it’s just that…” Steve knows from experience that if he refuses the use of the house (because it’s too much, too much, between the boat and the rooms at the inn and the cart ride in Omashu) Tony will only get irritated and force it upon them somehow, and if Steve _really_ didn’t want to use it then he would find a way of avoiding but… he does need a place while he’s training, so he steps on his words and instead thanks Tony. It’s getting easier to swallow his pride around Tony lately. If Bucky were here and he found out that Steve was sleeping in some guy’s house for free he’d probably laugh his head off.

            “It’s not a problem, there’s so many rooms there I wouldn’t know what to do with them anyways. Plus I think Thor needs a break away from his old man and if I just offered it to him he’d be suspicious…” Tony finishes the last few lines of his letter and turns back around to Steve,

            “About Thor…”

            “Are you here to yell at me about how I can’t speak out of turn and do whatever I want just because I’m Tony Stark? Because the monk already took care of that one.” A bitter snort punctuates Tony’s words. Well, Steve did have some thoughts in that regard beforehand, but looking at Tony now he shakes his head. If he and Tony are going to be on this team together for the long haul, they need to trust each other. Even if Steve doesn’t like the decisions that Tony makes, he needs to try to understand them before he reacts.

            “Why did you trust him so readily? I mean I know he’s a friend of yours but…” Steve tapers off and waits for Tony to answer.

            “Thor and I were never really friends growing up; I was a few years older than he was and I didn’t want to get stuck babysitting the royal brats. I wouldn’t even call us friends today, this is the first time I’ve seen him in years. My dad though, he always wanted us to play together. Good for business to have the son of the largest weapons manufacturer and the son of the Fire Lord grow up together,” Steve hadn’t known Tony’s father made weapons, he thought he was a general. He’s not sure if he’s surprised though. “Anyways, Thor and Loki really _were_ royal brats back then. I swear that Thor singed my eyebrows off once, and I wasn’t kidding about Loki and those spider-crabs. They were always good kids at heart though; could never stand to see an animal in pain, always respected those around them. Thor has a lion’s heart, and he honestly wants what’s best for his people.” Tony stops and looks out the window for a long time, as if he’s unsure how to continue.

            “Your eyebrows grew back in nicely,” Steve says, because Tony’s silence was beginning to get a little unnerving. The dark haired man flashes the quickest of smiles and then continues.

            “When I was going through a… spot of trouble, a couple years ago,”

            “What sort of trouble?” Steve can’t help it, the question just slip out.

            “It doesn’t matter.” Tony scowls and Steve actually wants to take Tony’s hands and force him to explain, tell him that he just wants to know because he honestly _cares_ , but he allows Tony to continue, “Anyways, I didn’t exactly have a lot of people on my side. But Thor… even though he was going through some sort of debacle with his own family – probably the reason that Loki left now that I think about it – he made sure to offer me his support. I didn’t use it, of course, because I’m an asshole like that, but the support was there. When Pepper and I started Stark Industries from scratch, it turns out that Thor was one of the major investors behind our energy projects. He _cares_ Steve, almost as much as you do, which is really an ungodly amount.” Tony has no idea. “So yes, I trust him, and I think that if we want to catch these guys then Thor’s our best bet.”  Tony’s don’t let up off of Steve’s face until he nods and stands up, then they fall to the floor.

            “There is a time and place for breaking protocol-“ Steve starts, only to be angrily interrupted by Tony.

            “I am _tired_ of Nick Fury’s stupid mind games! I am tired of protocol, and of secrets! If you could just-“

            “Tony! You didn’t let me finish. I was _going_ to say, that there is a time and place for breaking protocol, and I think you did the right thing. However if I’m going to trust you, then you need to trust me in the future. You need to tell me before you just jump out with your impulses,” Steve doesn’t miss the roll of Tony’s eyes, even in the dark, “but I agree with you, and I believe you. Having Thor on our side will help us. He was already saying that he has an idea of where the merchant’s hideout might be, so tomorrow we’ll all go and check it out. Okay?”

            “Okay. Fine. Good. See you tomorrow.” Tony turns back to his desk, and Steve hesitates for a moment. He wants to ask questions, about the “spot of trouble” from a couple years ago, and what Tony meant with rebuilding Stark Industries from scratch. He wants to know why Pepper was so worried. But he knows Natasha was right, a man’s past is his own.

            “Good night Tony, see you in the morning.”

\---

            Clint has never been a huge fan of the Fire Nation, and no it doesn’t have anything to do with that volcano incident a few years, although that didn’t exactly help. The land is flat, the people are snotty, the air is hot, and bad things always seem to happen. His mom died here (and his dad, but that might actually be a point in the Fire Nation’s favor), this is where Barney betrayed him and the circus cast him out and where the YuYan archers found him, Natasha and Phil nearly died here on a mission once, while Clint was forced to watch. Also there was the volcano incident, which had kept Clint from sex for 2 months and from his bow for 4 months, so okay maybe that was a big part of the reason why he hated the Fire Nation as much as he did.

            So Fire Nation, no, not exactly his favorite place. Honestly, yesterday hadn’t exactly been a boon either, with Tony pissing Phil off like that. Phil was never in the mood for sex when he was angry, _especially_ not when he was angry with Stark.  Seeing Thor again had been nice though. Despite nearly shooting him through the head last time they met, Clint had always liked the big guy.  It didn’t hurt that Thor said he was lovely, or that he might have information on the merchant which would make Clint’s life about 10x easier.

            Or at least Clint _thought_ it was going to make his life easier, but actually battling those dorks was pretty damn hard. There were a lot of them, and they had been trained. Thoroughly. Another point against the Fire Nation. Thor’s lightning bending was incredibly impressive – the best Clint had ever seen in all of his years (and he’s seen at least a handful of lightning benders), but they were still getting held back by the sheer number of opponents. Clint was running along the roof of the old factory where the guys were set up, shooting down a storm of arrows while keeping an eye out for his teammates. He had his own foes to deal with, no question, but his ultimate position in the battlefield was to take out anybody who looked they were about to kill one of his friends. It’d be easier if there weren’t so many of them.

            “Phil, on your 2 o’clock!” He yells, and Phil ducks just in time to avoid getting hit over the head with a club, and sends a gust of air back that knocks the guy right out of his shoes. That’s what Clint likes to see. Clint takes out another two guys and then sees Steve’s rock shield coming right towards him. Instinctively he jumps out of the way and sees it take out two guys behind him. “Thanks Avatar!”

            “Watch yourself Clint, you’re not the only one who can climb on top of a building!”

            “A simple ‘you’re welcome’ would have been fine. Maybe even a ‘thank you Clint for saving our lives repeatedly,’ or something. I know you’re 92 and therefore a cranky old man, but politeness goes a long way.”

            “You’re welcome! Now pay attention!” Sheesh, Steve always got super uptight during battles. Probably leftover from his time as an actual soldier, Clint thinks.

            Anyways, so Clint is out there paying attention (which he was already doing, fuck you Steve) when he sees this guy walk out of the factory, and Natasha turns _white_. Clint has seen Natasha fake distress before, has seen her play up that helpless-little-girl act to get what she wanted until even Clint was tempted to put his coat down over a puddle for her. But this isn’t an act, this isn’t faking.

            Natasha sees this guy and she is scared and furious. She knows this man and Clint doesn’t, which means it’s someone from her past before Clint. Now, Clint doesn’t know everything that happened to Natasha before he met her, but he knows enough to realize that the implications of this are numerous and generally very bad. Clint doesn’t care about that at the moment though. He just knows that no one gets to scare Natasha like that.

            Immediately Clint jumps off the roof, putting the bow away and taking the sword out as he falls to the ground. He lands in a roll and slashes his way to Natasha, to the guy who seems to be telling her something and Natasha… she isn’t moving.

            “We’ve all missed you,” the guy says, and Natasha struggles to raise her arms but can’t, “We wondered if you’d ever come back to us, Black Widow,” In fact her body seems to be restricted somehow, almost as if… Her eyes lock with his and Clint gets it. Bloodbending. Clint sees the man’s fingers stretched taught and wide at his sides, like spider-legs, he thinks briefly, and then he puts two and two together and lops off the man’s hand without another thought.

            There’s blood on the ground, blood on the sword, the man’s screams ringing in the air, and Clint doesn’t regret it one bit. He’s killed for Natasha before, and he’d kill for her again. In the time it’s taken for Clint to come for Natasha, their group has gained the upper hand and the battle is starting to wind down. Steve looks over, sees the man lying on the ground in a pool of blood and completely goes off. Clint can’t really blame him; he carries responsibilities regarding human life that Clint would never have to worry about.

            “Clint! We said no casualities!” Clint could point out that the guy isn’t dead, and Natasha or Bruce can patch up a wound like that in a second (Natasha’s already doing it, actually, though she’s leaving him weak enough to not be a threat), but instead he lets Steve yell. “Why did you leave your post?”

            “Because Natasha needed my help, and this guy is a bloodbender.” Clint doesn’t kick the guy in the ribs because he wouldn’t kick a man when he’s down, no matter how much he may deserve it. He just sort of gestures with his boat, and it lightly taps the guy in the side which causes him to scream. Oops, maybe his ribs are broken too.

            Steve looks lost for a second; he’s probably never had to deal with an actual bloodbender before. Clint knows from Natasha’s stories – it’s no picnic.

            “But bloodbending is…”

            “Illegal?” Clint spits, “Yeah, sorry but I don’t think these guys really care. Look, the guy’s not dead. Finish up the fight and then we’ll figure things out. Okay?” Steve nods, and sometimes Clint forgets exactly what Steve is like, the sheer faith that he has in the goodness of others. He’s the Avatar, he grew up on the streets, has been all around the world, and fought in history’s worst war, but he’s 22 and so full of idealism. Like he can’t even believe that someone would use bloodbending, that someone could do something so awful. That sort of thinking got beat out of Clint when he was a little kid, and he wishes to god he could keep Steve’s heart just as gentle, but if Steve’s ever going to fulfill his destiny he needs to see the world for what it is.

            They finish up the battle, it’s a bit bloody and Clint is definitely sporting some bruised ribs and maybe the cut on his leg some stitching, but it’s over and Steve is placing individual earth rings around the bad guys to keep them from moving. Phil runs a hand across Clint’s back for a moment before going to talk to Thor about something, leaving Clint to go find Natasha. He sees her standing in front of the bloodbender, who is unconsciously cradling his stump of a hand. Clint walks up just as their conversation ends. The man smiles up at him, he has blood smeared across his teeth and the right side of his cheek is already beginning to swell and turn purple. Good. Bastard.

            “You okay ‘Tasha?” He asks, once they’re on their own.

            “I’m fine.” She’s looking resolutely at the floor, because Clint told her that if she ever lied to his face again that would be the end of their relationship

            “Natasha.” Clint positions himself so that he’s slightly squatting, and able to look right into her eyes. That earns him just the hint of a smile.

            “Clint, when I’m ready to talk to you about this, I will. Right now, all I’m going to say is that I knew him and… I think that he may be a lead.” She looks Clint in the eye this time and he nods, and then tentatively puts his arm around her and holds her close.

            “You know I can’t lose you,” because when she went white and couldn’t move Clint was _afraid_. He was so afraid. His words are whispered into her hair, but Natasha hears them anyways.

            “We’re not going to lose each other Clint. We’re going to save the day, and we’re going to be fine.”

\---

            They’re still not sure what the warehouse was manufacturing, and they still haven’t caught the merchant, though Natasha promises that they have a lead. Clint made it very clear when they got together that there were questions about her past that Phil wasn’t allowed to ask, so he doesn’t. Instead he kisses up the side of Clint’s jaw and runs his thumb over Clint’s hip bone, because this is what the archer needs right now. He has his knee wedged between Clint’s legs and Clint is rubbing unconsciously against it, arching into Phil’s touch.

            “Phil…” Clint breathes and Phil gives him a dirty kiss – all teeth and tongue – before pulling away.

            “Shh… I’ve got you…” and then he’s unbuttoning the other man’s fly and Clint’s breathing is heavy and labored under his fingers. There’s the slide of skin against skin and the pressure of Phil’s mouth against Clint’s neck and then Clint is close, he can feel it. “It’s alright,” is all Phil has to say before Clint utterly comes apart in his hand, biting into Phil’s shoulder to muffle his yell. His breathing erratic and his face flushed and gods Phil _loves_ him like that. Phil presses his chest down on Clint’s, pinning him into the ground, and gives him another kiss, this one slow and soft.

            “I love you, you know.”

            “I know. I love you too.”

\---

            The cell is small and remote, lit only by a single torch, which is quickly extinguished. There are no windows, no light of the moon guides her way, but Natasha knows exactly where the man is – sitting cross leg on the floor with his head bowed into his lap. She can feel the blood coursing through his veins, begging to be pulled to the surface.

            “I thought you’d come for me, Natasha.” He doesn’t look up, and Natasha sits on the ground across from him.

            “I didn’t come for you, I came for information.”

            “Same thing in the end, isn’t it?”

            “No. It’s not. Now you’re going to tell me, where is he?” Natasha’s fingers twitch, beg to be used, but she keeps them still. “Where is the Winter Soldier?

*

*

*

*

More fanart!! You guys it's so cool looking at Steve's earring is actually the best thing. Wow. Thanks again!!!!

[Captain Avatar by ~oOOTPOo](http://oootpoo.deviantart.com/art/Captain-Avatar-318038733)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. I bet you didn't see that coming. Notes time.
> 
> 1) Tony's alcoholism is not really touched upon in MCU canon, but I hinted at it last chapter. For me it's always been a big part of his character, so I wanted to add it in here. Granted this time Steve doesn't need to carry his unconscious body out of a burning building  
> 2) Um. So the lightning glass thing is definitely taken from Sweet Home Alabama. I'm actually fairly certain that that doesn't happen in real life (or rather it does, but it's not super pretty and translucent) so umm... whatever clearly I watch sappy romance movies  
> 3) YAY THOR FINALLY SHOWS UP OH MY GOD FINALLY HERE HE IS HURRAY!!!! He (and Bruce because I felt bad) will be more heavily featured next chapter probably. So stay tuned!!  
> 4) Yeah. You read that right. Winter Soldier.
> 
> questions comments concerns, I want all of them please


	9. The New House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this was a few days later than I wanted it to be because jesus fucking chris on a stick, this was a really difficult chapter to write for whatever reason.  
> Anyways, thanks for sticking with me as always and I hope you enjoy it.  
> I will be the first person to admit that math is not my forte, so give me some leeway there.

As they creep closer to the mainland of the Fire Nation, Steve’s thoughts turn more and more to his upcoming trial: learning firebending, and finally mastering all four elements. It feels strange, to be so close to finishing this leg of his journey. When he first started earthbending training and he was stuck in the hot sun for hours lifting boulder after boulder after boulder, there were times when it looked like he could never finish. Times when he just wanted to open up a hole in the earth and crawl into it. But Steve knew if he could just push through it, if he could just _endure_ , then the end would be worth it. He could fulfill his destiny, and help the world. Granted he never thought that it would take over 70 years to do so, but life was full of surprises.

            There’s one problem that he keeps running into though; he doesn’t actually _know_ any firebenders, let alone any firebending masters. Steve finds himself, somewhat illogically, wishing that he could learn from Tony. The gloves are such a part of Tony, that Steve can occasionally forget that the dark haired man can’t _actually_ firebend. Thinking about that makes him worry – what if Tony gets caught without his gloves? Was he trained in combat like Clint? Steve would have to talk to him about it, when Tony wasn’t in a mood to get defensive. Which, as of late, wasn’t often.

             They’re sitting down to breakfast one morning (Steve likes it when they all eat together like this, it feels right, like a family) when he finally thinks about asking Thor. He barely has the word “master” out of his lips when Thor is setting down his fifth bowl of rice and rising to clap Steve hard on the back.

            “Avatar Steven, I would be delighted to instruct you in the ancient ways of firebending! It would be my honor!”

            “Well, I was actually just asking if you knew of any masters but-“

            “Who better to teach the Avatar firebending than the crown prince of the Fire Nation? Under my careful watch, you will become a most formidable opponent!” Thor’s enthusiasm was catching, and after watching him in the battle the other day, Steve was sure that he could learn a thing or two from the large prince, so sure. Why not.

            “Thank you, Sifu Thor. I look forward to learning from you.”

            “Remind me to steer clear of the two you once we get to Stark’s mansion,” Clint mumbles around a mouthful of food. Natasha gives him a look. “What? I’ve been around new firebenders before, and I’m just saying that control isn’t usually their top skill. I happen to like the hair on my head un-singed, and Phil if you bring up that volcano incident again I will _end you.”_ Clint jabs his knife pointedly at Phil before spreading some jam on his toast and taking a big bite. The airbender just raises an eyebrow, but lately Steve has been able to recognize the smile in his eyes that’s just for Clint.

            “Statistically he’s right,” Bruce adds, “new firebenders have the highest percentage of accidents among all four elements. Even earthbenders don’t tend to do as much damage, and they’re throwing around literally tons of rock.”  

            “Don’t listen to them Steve, you’re the Avatar. I think you can handle a bit of fire,” Tony takes a long drag of coffee from his mug, “and if you do burn down the house that’s totally fine. I’m rich, I can buy another one. Oh except for the art. Pepper, remind me to remove all of the art from the house before Steve starts his training.”

           “That might be over-cautious,” Steve grumbles, but on the inside he has to admit that they have a point. He, of all people, knows how dangerous fire can be.

            “Fret not Avatar! I only burned off Anthony’s eyebrows the one time!”

            Oh yeah. Steve is feeling just great about his upcoming lessons.

\---

            Tony Stark sees the world in equations.

            Today’s weather is a quick calculation of precipitation, tomorrow’s fortune is a question of **x** innovation divided by **y** stock options, and yesterday’s mistakes were charted and used to extrapolate the next possibilities. People are no different, really. Tony knows the velocity of Clint’s arrows multiplied by the force of his smile, sees the sum of Bruce’s patience divided by the fear of his anger, and feels the worry in Pepper’s tone mapped against the amount of acceptable risk. Inviting Thor in on this mess was no accident; Tony acted out because he knew he was right; he could see the benefits already, even if the others couldn’t. Thor would provide instant access to all aspects of Fire Nation society, as well as a firebending master for Steve. It was a win-win situation.

            Phil might have chewed him out for it (a variable Tony had forgotten to include, but then everyone makes mistakes sometimes), but Tony was still pretty proud of his executive decision to bring Thor into the loop. The man was a party animal, and after only a week he had settled into the group pretty well. He clicked just as well as Bruce had (another success Tony liked to privately congratulate himself on), and soon it was hard to remember a time when you couldn’t expect to hear the large man’s uproarious laughter ringing out across the sea.

            “Why yes, lovely Clint! I would be happy to conduct lightning through your sais, I’m sure a warrior such as yourself will soon learn to conduct it through your body! It is through the belly that-“

            “I always knew this guy was a good idea. Phil, didn’t I tell you Thor was going to be great?”

            “Clint, put down those sais _right now_.”

            Okay, Thor also came with his own special brand of added chaos, but that was nothing new to anybody on board this ship and Tony had taken it into consideration. Tony had never lived the most normal of lives, coming from the world of luxury and invention that he did, but this group had their own brand of weird that Tony had never encountered before. Once you’ve woken up to a YuYan archer  watching you from the ceiling, only to walk outside and nearly be impaled by a spike of ice fired either from a world-class assassin or the Avatar though, you learn to just let these things go.

            So that’s the equation of Tony’s life right now – the fights and the laughs and the near death experiences. He knows all of the variables; the flex of Clint’s wrists and the quiet laugh spilling from Bruce’s lips and the fond roll of Natasha’s eyes. There are still some unknowns (he isn’t quite sure the exact level of danger that Phil represents, if Steve was a constant, or how variable **t** (Tony) fit into everything), but generally Tony can figure out the answer to most things, and he can see when something doesn’t add up.

            “Something doesn’t add up,” he says to Bruce as he leans against the railing on the ship.  He’s staring at the mainland of the Fire Nation, which had been a speck in the distance yesterday and was now making up the entire horizon line. They’ll be docking in a couple hours, probably.

            “I mean, we can run the numbers for the fuel again if you want, but I was pretty confident with it all last time we checked –“

            “No, not that. It’s… something else. Look, Bruce, buddy. If I ask you a favor, would you… could you do something for me?”

            “Name it.”

\---

            They don’t have time for a full training session on the boat, obviously. They’re only a couple hours away from the shore, and besides it’s a little too cramped for Steve to feel fully comfortable. Still, Thor insists that he work on the very basics. That’s fine. Steve has always been good with the basics.

            “There is a flame burning within each of us,” Thor tells him, as he positions Steve into a fighting stance, “all firebenders are able to do is release that flame, so that it may burn freely in the world!”

            “Alright, and I feel this flame with my chi?”

            “Exactly! Watch,” Thor concentrates for a second, breathes in, breathes out, and then there is a hammer made of fire sitting in his hand.

            “Well that may have been the least helpful demonstration I’ve ever seen,” Tony mutters, “at least I can explain the science of mine.” Sure enough he begins conjuring his own fire right alongside Thor’s. “It’s a simple reaction of-“

            “Well done Anthony!” Thor interrupts hastily, “Your gloves are most glorious indeed.” Tony seems satisfied with Thor’s praise, and the large man turns back to Steve, “Shapes will probably be too advanced for you right now, but try to summon your flame!”

            Steve closes his eyes and breathes in, breathes out. He instinctually reaches towards his heart with his chi, feeling the pathways throughout his body flood with the power. It’s hot without giving off heat, in the same way that the spirit world is always slightly too cold. He can grasp it, slightly, the power warming his hands and then –

            _Fire flying past his face, villages burning and children screaming. Smoke fills his lungs and he cuts off a cough filled with the smell of burning. Bucky’s mouth open but no scream following, as the flames wash over them -_

Steve breaks away with a gasp.

            “It’s okay,” Thor offers reassuringly, “sometimes a flame can take time.”

            “Are you okay?” Tony asks, concern pooling in his brown eyes.

            “Yeah,” Steve nods, displaying a confidence he doesn’t feel, “it can just be a little difficult to learn a new form of bending. I’ll be fine I’m sure, once we get to your house and I have the space.” Tony nods slightly and backs off, clearly not wanting to press the issue too much. He can understand wounded pride, Steve supposes.

            Steve can still feel the flame burning within his chest, but he doesn’t dare reach out to it again. Not yet.

\---

            When the ship finally lands at the dock, Tony is sure that the walk to the mansion is going to take forever; he can already feel his legs aching in anticipation. However, the walk to the house isn’t all that bad, especially with a couple of ostrich-horses carrying the larger bags. The mansion hasn’t changed in the years that Tony had been gone. It still stands at the top of a cliff on the beach, its golden roof and deep red walls glinting in the afternoon sun.

            “Wow Tony, ostentatious much?” Clint shields his eyes against the sun and whistles in appreciation.

            “Awfully big word for you, Clint.”

            “Oh, fuck you Stark.”

            “Sorry, I don’t go for married men.”

            “As if I’d _ever_ –“

            “Your house is very lovely,” Steve interrupts, “thank you again for your hospitality.” And there is something about that sentence that curls unpleasantly in Tony’s mind, but he can’t identify what it is just yet.

            “Yeah, sure, you know. Like I said before, it’s really not a problem.” Tony smiles, but it comes out wrong.

            “Looks like you have a visitor,” Bruce says, peering into the distance, and Tony can see that he’s right.

            “Well I’ll be damned, that son of a bitch didn’t even tell me he was coming.” Tony lets out a laugh and hurries to meet the dark skinned man in front of them. “Honey platypus-bear, you came!” He grasps Rhodey in a quick hug before stepping away, “I swear, all these months without any contact from you, I was beginning to get worried that the organization had killed you and hid the body. I wouldn’t even get a widow’s pension.”

            “We don’t all have time to write three page letters every day,” Rhodey responds, but Tony can see the fondness in his eyes and he knows his buddy missed him just as much. “You’re looking good Tony; the life at sea suits you.”

            “You look like you’ve put on a few pounds,” Tony replies, giving Rhodey’s incredibly firm tummy a couple pats, “you might want to lay off the fire flakes. Those things are a carb nightmare.”

            “Yeah, yeah.” There’s a pause as the two grin at each other, and then Rhodey looks past Tony. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”

            “Yes mom, I was just about to do that.” He wasn’t. “Well there’s Thor Odinson.”

            “Your highness, I-“ Rhodey falters for words for a second, clearly not expecting to have to deal with the royal family, but Thor just laughs and sweeps him up in a hug.

            “It is good to meet you, noble Lieutenant!”

            “Uh. Likewise.” Rhodey replies as he carefully extracts himself from Thor’s grip.

  1.             “That’s Bruce Banner – scientist extraordinaire. Clint, Natasha, and Phil. You should get along with them, they’re orginazation toadies too.”      



            “I can kill you from where I stand, Stark.”

            “Duly noted Clint, but you’re not the one I’m afraid of. Then we have the one, the only-“

            “Avatar Steve, it is an honor to meet you,” Rhodey bows low and Tony rolled his eyes. Of course he was able to pick out the Avatar. “My name is James Rhodes, Lieutenant in the Fire Nation army, and liaison to the organization. I try to balance the Fire Nation’s army based on your teachings.”  He snaps up from his bow into a military stance that has Tony biting back giggles, because he still remembers Rhodey drunk at age 16 and doing the fire-chicken dance, but Steve just grins and offers his hand.

            “At ease soldier, it’s good to meet a Fire Nation soldier who isn’t trying to take my head off. I’m sure you’re a credit to your people.”

            Rhodey blushes, but what can you expect. Tony would blush too, if Steve ever spoke of him like that. There’s something about the way he speaks, so completely earnest and forthright, that the smallest compliment almost sounds like a love letter. Every now and then Tony has to step back and remind himself that it’s not.

            “We’ll show them to their rooms, Tony, I think Rhodey has some things he’d like to discuss with you.” Pepper and Happy lead the others forward (Tony doesn’t understand why he suddenly feels so disappointed about not being the one to show them the house, it’s not like it matters) while Rhodey turns back to Tony.

            “You know, I never really thought you’d come back to this place.”

            “Neither did I.”

           The last time Tony had seen the mansion, he had been two weeks sober and almost delirious with the effort. At the time he felt like he was running away with his tail between his legs, catching onto a lifeline that he didn’t deserve. He expected to return to the mansion with a feeling of dread, or weighted down remembrance, but strangely that wasn’t happening at all. He wasn’t looking at the mansion and seeing the ghosts of his past (or at least, not in the crushing abundance that he had expected), he was just seeing potential for the future.

            Over the past week, Tony’s thoughts couldn’t help but turn to all of the improvements and changes he should make to the mansion.  He could siphon of a space in the lab for Bruce, there was a space of the garden that would be perfect for an archery range for Clint, Phil could have the upper library for meditation, Tony could even work out some sort of small manmade river to help Natasha, Thor could have whatever space he wanted (he was the prince after all). Then Steve of course, he would get the yard for his firebending training, and maybe the second floor bedroom on the east side of the house would be nice for painting…

            “Tony,” Rhodey’s voice snaps him out of his planning, “I’m shipping back out tomorrow, I only stopped by today so that I could tell you this in person.”

            “What? That you’re not my real dad?”         

            “We have…” Rhodey looks away for a moment before answering, “We have received part of a coded transmission, and Stark Industries was on it. Now, we don’t have the full context, but it did sound threatening, and I need you to be on your guard.”

            “Oh,” Tony snorts, “is that all?”

            “You’re not taking this as seriously as you need to be.”

            “What are they going to do? I don’t have anything to lose anymore!”

            “I’m not so sure about that,” Rhodey murmurs, and Tony resolutely does not follow his gaze to the retreating backs of his team entering the mansion.

            “I’m not afraid of them coming after me; it wouldn’t be the first time, and I think I can handle myself. Then the company is all tied up with Pepper now, we learned from our mistakes last time. Even the Starkmobile designs are at least functional, if not perfect. There’s nothing they can threaten me with.”

            “Tony… I think we both know that’s not true.”

\---

 

            After Rhodey leaves, Tony hurries catches up with the rest of the group. He doesn’t tell the others about the threats, which may be a mistake but at least it’s his mistake to make. Knowing Steve (or hell, any of them really), if they found out that Tony was involved in anything like that they would make it… if not priority #1, then at least priority #2 or 3, and they don’t need that. Steve doesn’t need that. He needs to just focus on learning firebending, and then they need to find that damn merchant (or whatever, honestly the day Tony trusts every bit of information that Nick Fury gives him is the day that the sky falls).

            As they walk around the mansion, and Tony says whatever words pop into his mouth (“Yes Clint, the kitchen is 24 hours. Natasha if you lurk in the shadows this much you’ll give every member of the cleaning staff a heart attack, and I _need them_.”) he finds himself resolutely trying to ignore the meaning in the darker man’s words. He can’t of course, because though he played dumb he knew _exactly_ what Rhodey was getting at. As much as he may want to ignore it, as much as he’d like to close his eyes and stop his ears, the truth is all too painfully clear in front of him. The people who have been living on his ship with him for the past several months, his friends, are beginning to matter.  

            If Tony is being completely honest, he really enjoys this thing he’s found. Sure, he’d always had Pepper, always had Rhodey, but these past several years had been spent largely apart, with Rhodey in the army and Pepper running the company, while Tony worked for the organization. The organization had mostly given him his duties (design this, fix that, boring boring boring) and left him alone. This was fine because ever since Obadiah, Tony hadn’t been all that fond of people he didn’t know.

            Obadiah taught Tony the most important parts of the human equation – variables **d** (deception) and **r** (randomness). They are the parts of the equation that remind Tony that at the end of the day, a person could always reach into his chest and pluck out his heart. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

            He hadn’t wanted to make a mistake again, hadn’t even wanted to travel with the Avatar in the first place, honestly. But now… He had forgotten how _good_ it felt to have people around, to be able to count on something as simple as laughter over breakfast or friendly bickering in the afternoon (and then there was Steve’s smile, but Tony didn’t like to think about that).

            Tony closes his eyes. Rhodey’s right. It’s not true. He may not be sure where variable **t** fits, and he may not know the values of **d** or **r** , but he can damn sure read the importance of the equation anyways.

            “You all right Tony?” Tony opens his eyes and Clints’ aren’t more than a few inches away, intense and accusing.

            “I’m fine,” Tony replies, and bats away the archer’s prodding fingers. Clint eyes him warily as Steve frowns.

            “You do look a little pale.” The concern bleeds through his voice, and Tony finds himself stupidly wanting to run his fingers through it like water.

            “Really, I’m okay. As much as I love to show off my handsome mug, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be the really-expensive-breathtaking-house you’re supposed to be looking at right now,” He gives one of his Tony Stark smiles, all sharp teeth and sharper eyes, and that makes Steve back off at least, but he’s still frowning and Clint is still watching him. Tony keeps his face relaxed but inwardly sighs.

            Somewhere in those past few months on that boat, these people have managed to slip their way past Tony’s defenses and lodge themselves next to the shrapnel in his heart. They’re a calculated risk now. They might be killing him slowly, or they might secretly be his saving grace, but if Tony tries to remove them he’ll die. He will.

            If Rhodey could see it, then others will be able to as well. Tony has so much to lose, and it terrifies him. It honestly terrifies him

\---

            Tony leaves dinner somewhat early, under the pretense of going down into the workshop, but he when he sees the open door to the garden something within him just breaks and in a few long strides he’s outside underneath the fig trees, his air coming large gulps. The house is so full, so crowded, in a way that the boat never was, despite its smaller size. He just needs a breath of fresh air… just for a moment….

            “Weird isn’t it.”

            Tony definitely does notjump at the sound of Clint’s voice behind him.

            “Did you follow me out here?” Tony whirls on Clint, but the other man is just standing there, rubbing his bow nonchalantly.

            “I mean,” Clint continues, as if Tony hasn’t said anything, “you spend so much of your time alone, and then bam – people. Right?”

            “You know that stalking can be considered a serious offense-“

            “And then these people, they fight and claw their way into your life until you’re not sure what’s yours and what’s theirs anymore. Until you’re blown right open, and they can just take, and take. It hurts, doesn’t it? It hurts, and it’s so terrifying you feel like you can’t move, can’t even breathe.” Tony is silent now, staring at Clint through the shade of the fig leaves. Steely blue eyes meet his own, and there is a type of understanding that Tony never really expected to see from someone so involved, so in love. Of course, that’s the trick, isn’t it.

            “So what do you do?” Tony asks finally, and Clint shrugs.

            “You give as much as you take, you love as hard as you can, and you protect your family. You might get burned, in the end, but if you did it right then it’ll be worth it.”

            “Do you really believe that?”

            “Most of the time, I think I do.” Clint jerks his head towards the house, signaling their need to return to the rest of the world, but Tony doesn’t move. “Don’t let fear hold you back, buddy. People aren’t meant to be alone.” Tony nods, finally, and follows Clint into the house.

            Variables **d** and **r** : Still unknown. Value of **t** : identified.

            Over his dead body are they going to touch any of his friends.

\---

            Bruce likes his room. It has a high, open ceiling, and a door into the garden out back in case Bruce wanted to practice his tsungi horn without waking up the others. With its cheery colors and quick access to Tony’s lab downstairs, it was easy to see that it had probably been chosen, if not created, specifically for him. He doesn’t think Tony can ever really know how much he appreciates it, but then again Tony is the one who chose this room for him, so maybe he does.

            It had been a long time since he had had a room of his own, the past several years having been spent living either in the wilderness or on the charity of others (actually, Bruce supposed that he was still living on charity, but Tony never made it feel like that) and he had forgotten what a luxury it was to be able to just kick off his shoes in any direction and then collapse onto a comfortable bed. Of course, his favorite part of that activity had been Betty collapsing into bed next to him, and Bruce breathing in her scent and the two of them getting lost in each other for hours. There is no Betty waiting for him in his bed anymore, no soothing words and delicate lips under his ear to draw him away from his work for the night. But then life isn’t perfect.

            These people they’re… not quite what Bruce expected in life (friends had never really been in abundance), not quite what he had (cool hands and soft lips and laughter that sounded like bells ringing), but after the accident they are far more than Bruce thought he would ever deserve. He feels comfortable and safe in a way that he hasn’t felt for years. He owes them so much more than his life, he owes them everything. Which is why Bruce is sitting on the front porch of the mansion in the dark, instead of sleeping in his comfortable new bed. He’s making good on a promise.

            The figure opens the door and slips outside quickly, soundlessly making her way down the steps to the path leading to the village. They don’t stop for a second glance back at the house, they just keep walking into the darkness.

            “Natasha,” Bruce’s voice is quiet but it carries, and the figure stops walking. “Tony said this would happen.”

            “Of course he did,” Natasha turns around and offers Bruce a smile, “so why are you out here, and not Tony?”

            “I think,” Bruce pauses for a moment and sifts through Tony’s words in his head, “I think he wanted me to stop you, because he knew that anything he said wouldn’t have the same weight. But coming from me, with my experiences, it might be different.”

            “So, what words of wisdom do you have to make me stay?” Natasha’s voice is warm and inviting, but after months together, Bruce can see the slight tightness in her eyes.

            “I don’t, really. There are some things in life that you have to do to protect the people you love.”

            When Bruce left the house for the last time, Betty had been fast asleep and wrapped in a cocoon of blankets (she always ended up stealing the covers from Bruce in her sleep). Her dark hair spilled across her face like waves of ink, and Bruce had tucked it behind her ear and pressed his lips softly against her forehead before heading outside. He had done what he needed to do.

            “I am going to say this though,” because Bruce has to give a little bit of advice. “Everything you do has unforeseen consequences. Our actions aren’t separate islands in the sea, they’re stones thrown into a pond. You don’t know how far the ripples will spread.” He doesn’t know if Betty’s hair is long or short, doesn’t know who she steals the blankets from anymore, doesn’t know if she still smells like crushed lavender. He doesn’t know Betty anymore.

            “This is the only way to keep the people I love safe,” Natasha murmurs, “it has to be done.”

            “If you’re sure…”

           “I am.” There isn’t a trace of doubt in Natasha’s voice, and her eyes are clear and confident in the darkness. It could be an act, it could always be an act with Natasha (because Bruce will never forget the first time she played him), but he believes her anyways.

            “I do have one favor to ask, before you go.” Bruce hands over a single small envelope, “I – I don’t know where you’ll be headed, but if you pass by Ba Sing Se if you could please… deliver this to Betty Ross.” Because it’s time to stop running so far away. Time to stop being so afraid.

            “It will be done,” Natasha says as she carefully takes the envelope and tucks it into her pack. “Bruce?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Take care of yourself, okay?”

            “Only if you do the same.”

            Natasha smiles in response, and then walks off. Bruce stays outside until he can’t see her anymore, stays outside until the sun is already beginning shine in the distance, and then heads back inside to bed.

\---

            Steve wakes up, shaking and sweat drenched from a dream where families had nowhere to run and fire burned at the edges of his vision. The flame inside his chest rumbles, and Steve doesn’t get much sleep that night.

*

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MORE FANART!!!

[The Omashu Delivery System Scene](http://oootpoo.deviantart.com/#/d59hr7k) from Chapter 8 by oOOTPOo

guys this is fantastic, wow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp! I hope that was at least somewhat favorable with people!! It's the shortest chapter I've written in a while which, sorry I guess?  
> NOTES (I actually really don't have that many)  
> 1) Christine (fuckitfireeverything) deserves a world of thanks for helping me with this chapter  
> 2) Balancing a cast of so many people can be really hard 
> 
> Join us next week to see Steve's harrowing attempts to learn firebending, and Natasha's forays into the world of awesomeness  
> questions, comments, concerns -->>


	10. The Metal Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long. I'm really sorry. I had a job. But now it's over.

 Clint had taken the original news of Natasha’s absence rather calmly at first, and then he had spent four hours straight firing at the same target, so Phil knew that he was working it through his system.

“Fuck!” He’d yelled, finally, “It’s not like I even fucking know where she went! How could I fucking know? I can’t even fucking follow her if this goes wrong!” and then he had launched three arrows with a flick of his wrist. Bullseye. Bullseye. Bullseye. Phil had made sure to hold Clint tight that night, because he knew Clint needed to feel the pressure of Phil’s body over his own, needed that extra reassurance.

They differ in that respect, Clint finds solace through physicality; through muscles aching with the strain of a bow and the bruise of a bite from Phil on his hip. Phil is a monk, he had learned long ago to deal with the stress and pain in his life spiritually. It is quiet hours of meditation and the energy in Clint’s voice that calm him down. They are both more than willing to give what the other needs though, which is one of the reasons they work so well.

“She’ll be back,” Clint mutters now, absentmindedly carving some shape into a small hunk of wood with one of the many knives he keeps on his person at all times.

“She will be,” Phil agrees, because where Clint speaks from experience (“She’s the only woman who has made her way back into my life every time,” he once explained to Phil, back when he and Nat were still together and Phil would never have admitted it but he _wanted_ right then, because he had never left Clint’s life – not even once, and he never would as long as he had a choice in the matter) Phil speaks from a life lived on belief.

It has been three days since Natasha left, and Phil is not worried. He’s not worried about _her_ , at least. Natasha can take care of herself, and Phil is confident that she’ll return with all of the information they need. He is a little worried about Clint (it comes with the territory), and mostly worried about this ragtag group of people he is supposed to keep an eye on. Well, one member in particular.

Steve has been taking Natasha’s departure rather hard. Phil knew the two had grown close, had kept track of Steve’s comings and goings from Natasha’s room (not romantic in nature, he’s pretty sure, but a connection based on shared experiences of some sort) but he wasn’t quite prepared for Steve to be quite this upset. It was like those first days on the boat again, where it had been so easy for Steve to slip into a shell of sadness and silence when none of them were watching.

“There’s probably another reason he’s upset,” Clint suggested when Phil brought it up to him the first night after Natasha left. “Something that’s bothering him that we’re not getting. People are complicated, Phil.” Which of course made Phil laugh because yeah, he knows that. “I know you’re worried about your idol-“

 “I would be worried about any member of the team.”

“And believe me, when you stare at him like that even _I_ begin to feel a bit jealous-“

“I do not stare, I observe.”

“Except then I remember that you’ve never sucked the Avatar’s-“

“Nor do I want to. Is there a point to this other than humiliation?”

“The point is,” Clint smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Phil’s temple, “Nobody takes care of their team better than you do. So stop worrying, keep an eye on the guy, and I’m sure it’ll work out. He just has stuff to sort through.”

“This coming from the man who gave _Tony Stark_ a pep-talk the other day,” Phil answered, but he returned the smile.

“Hey, he needed to hear it, and you knew that. Maybe Steve could use a pep-talk of his own from you?”

“No,” Phil responded, eyeing Tony and Steve having one of their too-stupid-to-recognize arguments across the room while Thor and Bruce watched with mild amusement, “I think he should hear it from someone else.”

“Yeah…” Clint agreed, following Phil’s eyes, and then he let out a sigh, “god, without ‘Tasha this is such a sausage fest.”

\---       

“What’s a girl like you doing all the way out here?” The man’s leer is appreciative and lingering, and Natasha allows her mouth to work into a small flirtatious smirk. _Come hither, I won’t bite, unless you want me too._

“Following my passions…” is the lofty answer she gives, and she punctuates it with a wink. She can feel the blood in the man’s body travel south, and she laughs internally. Men are too easy sometimes. “Maybe you can help me? I seem to be a little… lost…”

“You just follow me, girl. I’m sure we’ll sort you out just fine.” The man grins and Natasha returns it. Yes, they’ll definitely sort this out.

\---

“Yes! Hold the concentration of the fire like so, and do not let the leaf perish in your hand!” Thor smiles broadly at his student (his student the _Avatar!)_ who is sweating bullets trying to keep the edges of a leaf on fire. “Keep the flame fanned just so, no larger and no smaller.”

“Yes Sifu _.”_ Steve bites out, as he narrows his eyes at the leaf in his hand. A drop of sweat drips down onto the rough stone that lines the mansion’s outdoor training ground, and quickly evaporates in the heat of the sun. Steve’s concentration doesn’t leave the leaf, and Thor watches as he pours his energy into the maintaining the flame. It lasts for one, two, three, four seconds, and then is gone, leaving nothing but a burnt leaf and Steve’s aggravated groan.

Thor stifles a sigh, he can’t allow Steve to see the doubt he is beginning to foster. A teacher should have absolute faith in his student, and Thor does have faith in Steve. Only… it has been three days since they reached Anthony’s mansion, and the Avatar is still unable to do anymore than set the edge of a leaf slightly ablaze. Thor isn’t disheartened, he is only worried. After three days of watching Steve’s failures, he’s pretty sure he knows what’s going wrong. He just isn’t sure he can fix the problem.

“Avatar…” Thor starts, but Steve shakes his head.

“I’m going to try again.” Steve says, but when he focuses on the leaf he is only able to get a couple sparks before the whole thing fizzles out once more.

“Are you drawing from your inner flame?” Thor asks, as he pushes a wave of fire out across the courtyard in demonstration. He can feel the heat thrumming in his veins, coursing through his body and mingling with the beat of his heart. It’s a constant pressure, it’s how Thor knows that he is alive.

“I think I just need more practice. If I just keep trying, I’m bound to get it eventually. It will work-“

“No.” Thor’s voice is final, and he sees the tick of annoyance pop up in Steve’s jaw.

“Excuse me?”

“Avatar Steve, we have been trying the same approach for three days, and it is not working. In my experience, friend, that is when you try a new tactic.”

 In the two weeks that Thor had traveled with his new companions, he had learned that Steve was as stubborn as they come, and as likely to give in as the stone he lifted. In the heat of battle, Thor tended to admire this attribute. A warrior should never give up, never surrender. He did also admired Steve’s fortitude in their practice sessions, but it was being somewhat misused. Steve would stay out under the intense Fire Nation sun for hours, just trying to keep that leaf on fire. Thor was pretty sure that if he allowed it, Steve would continue doing this until the islands fell into the sea.

“What do you suggest, sifu?” Steve looks at him eagerly, clearly intent on getting on with the training. Thor takes a moment to think, work out the differences between Steve’s failed attempts and a successful execution of firebending.

“You are thinking like an earthbender.” He finally says, and Steve sighs.

“I’ve been told that before…” he admits with a small smile, and Thor wonders briefly about Steve’s past bending masters. Only the smile doesn’t look like something attached to a teacher, but rather like the smile he sees on the face of his Lady Jane when the two of them are reunited.

“You are folding the fire in within yourself.” Thor continues, “Unlike rock, or water, or air, fire needs to breath. You need to allow it out into the open.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do-“ Steve starts, but Thor shakes his head again.

“No, you are trying to _push_ the fire, when you need to let the fire _live._ Yes, there must be a strong degree of control, but never forget that the fire is alive. Like most earthbenders, you work from the tactical idea of protect and defend. A firebender attacks, he charges!” Thor swing his arms around and a burst of fire follows, sending a wave of adrenaline down his spine. He loves the way his fingers tingle, begging to release the electricity he knows is inside of him. He turns to smile and sees that a darkness has fallen over his friend.

“I’d rather defend than attack any day. I’ve seen the damage that letting fire live can cause, and I’m not interested.” Steve’s expression is hard, and the words would sting if Thor didn’t understand them so well. He should have realized beforehand, should have known the damage would be all too fresh in the Avatar’s mind. “Thank you for the lesson today Thor, but I think it’s time I take a break.”

“I think you are right,” Thor agrees quietly, and the two bow stiffly before Steve goes back inside the mansion. Thor finally allows himself the sigh he had been holding in all morning, and he walks to sit down in the coolness of the fig trees.

He takes a fig right off the tree and eats it in two bites, the wet sweetness welcome in the day’s heat. He remembers hiding in the trees behind his palace, and a young Loki convincing their father that the stains on their shirt _were not_ from stealing fruit from the royal orchards. It’s times like these where he misses Loki, villain though he may be (and Thor’s not sure he’ll ever be quite able to accept that) because Loki knew how to make people _see_. He could manipulate them into any matter of understanding, which of course had ended up being his downfall.

Thor feels nothing but shame and remorse over his brother’s self-imposed exile.  He wishes he could grab his brother tight, wishes he could fix everything that happened between them, but he has learned that Loki has to want to be helped, in order for anything to happen. Change comes only when people want it, and Thor learned that the hard way.

There had been a time, before, where Thor would have laughed at Steve. Would have called him weak, and his strategy of defense cowardly. But Thor was no longer the young spoiled prince he once was.

 He had learned the value of defense and control, he had found true friendship and love (and at this moment Thor misses Jane with an ache the size of the ocean, cold and distant and empty). He wonders if Steve (or Loki) will be able to do the same.

It’s not easy, Thor still has a habit of charging head-first into battle, still makes merry and follows the Fire Nation high-society culture of celebrate the day instead of planning for the year. But he’s learning. He will be better. He will be the Fire Lord that this nation deserves, and he believes that Steve can be the Avatar who saves the world.

\---

The man had unwittingly given Natasha the name of a city, and she had kindly left him passed out in front of his own doorstep. He should have woken up by now.

The city she’s in is a day south of Ba Sing Se (Natasha had thumbed a ride with a passing monk and his air bison; life was so much easier when you weren’t travelling on a boat) and Natasha can’t help but think about the letter in her pocket. She’ll deliver it when she’s done here. She understands Bruce more than he could ever possibly know.

“I need a name,” She states calmly, as the band of water around the woman’s arm tightens. If Natasha were to turn it to ice, the arm would come off, and the other woman knows it. Still, she’s a good soldier and she spits the blood in her mouth at Natasha instead of answering. “Don’t be stupid now, just give me a name and you walk out of here unharmed. No one ever needs to know.”

“I’m not betraying-“

“Finish that sentence,” Natasha laughs, because she knows _all_ about betrayal, “I dare you. A name.”

If she can get a name, she can figure out the next location on her own. Probably. Then she’ll be one step closer to the merchant they’re looking for, and one step closer to the Winter Soldier as well.

She doesn’t know what exactly she’ll say or do when she finds him. But at the battle at the warehouse, when that scumbag Ravi had told her that James was still alive… he hadn’t been lying. Natasha had felt his pulse, paid attention to his face and he was 100% honest.

If James is alive, then she has to at least try to find him. He would do the same for her, and the fact that he hadn’t speaks more to his probably situation than she cared to admit at the moment.

“Aah-! Laufeyson, it’s Laufeyson!”

The girl leaves with both arms and Natasha journeys to Ba Sing Se.

\---

Steve’s having it out with one of the practice dummies that Tony had given him. Just one fist pounding away after another, followed by a blast of air and a whip of water. It feels good to be able to do something.

The punches don’t make the screams go away though, can’t erase the smell of burning or the taste of ash that seem to be following him.

It didn’t happen before, when he thought Tony was a firebender, and it didn’t happen when they met Thor, so why now? Why is he having such a hard time now?

Another kick and the dummy is ripped open, sand leaking onto the ground, but Steve is able to clean that all up with a couple flicks of his wrist, and then it’s on to the next one.

Steve bites his lip, and thinks about his words to Thor. They weren’t quite fair, and he knows he should probably apologize for them, but the other man had seemed to understand so maybe it was just best to let it lie. They weren’t exactly what he wanted to say either.

 It’s not that Steve has a problem with the concept of an attack, spirits knew he had launched enough on his own that they were pretty much second nature by now (and here he is, ripping a dummy to shreds). But his attacks had always been in defense of something, had always been insular and controlled and stable.

Ever since Steve had first touched the slightest bit of fire within his chi, he had felt distinctly uncomfortable. Everything had been too hot, too close, and sometimes he felt like he was going to explode. The fire, the rage, the sadness, all of it begged to be let out, to leap from his fingers and _attack_ , but Steve wouldn’t let it. He didn’t dare.

Earth is substance, air is freedom, and water is change. Steve understands the priniciples behind those elements, loves them and protects them and practices them. Fire is different, fire is destruction.

Steve knows he’s the Avatar, knows it’s his destiny to master and respect all four elements, but whenever he could feel the flames reaching out of his fingertips all he could think about was burned villages and dead soldiers. How can he explain that to someone who has never fought in a true battle, who has never seen the ravages of war?

Boom goes the dummy, getting sand everywhere. Just as Steve begins to pick up the pieces, he hears a low whistle come from behind him.

“Well, I think that one’s down for the count,” It’s the second time that Steve has seen Tony since they came to the mansion (the first being their brief argument over who should clean the dishes the other night) and he doesn’t like to admit it, but the man’s absence has weighed almost as heavily as Natasha’s (who was gone and couldn’t run her fingers through his hair and Steve understood she left to protect them but she should have cleared it with him first).

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Steve says by way of greeting, and Tony has the decency to look properly abashed.

“Oh yeah, I’ve been, you know, around.” He waves his hand vaguely in the air and leans casually against the door frame.

“I don’t think holing away in your workshop basement really counts as being _around._ ” Steve laughs a little at the role of Tony’s eyes, so familiar now that Steve swears he could feel it happening without even looking. He’s missed that, and it’s silly because it’s only been a few days but he’s missed the way Tony rolls his eyes in a way that used to absolutely infuriate him.

“So you missed me?” there’s a teasing lilt to Tony’s voice, and the grin on his face is just this side of shy.

“Of course I did,” and Steve’s sheer honesty wipes the smile right off of Tony’s face. “You can’t lock yourself in a room and assume people aren’t going to notice.” The words come out harsher than Steve meant for them too, and he finds himself surprised at the hot anger he feels bubbling around him. He bites it back and frowns at the ground.

“I have a job you know,” Tony answers, and then Steve feels a bit silly because that’s right. Tony has a job and a life outside of Steve. Steve can’t just _assume_ he’ll make time for him…

“Even Pepper wouldn’t want you to work yourself to death like that,” Steve finally says, because it’s true. Even if Tony can’t make time for Steve, he should be making time for things like sleeping and eating.

“I have a system!” Tony yells, and Steve knows it’s a line from an argument he has had with Pepper over and over again. Steve is not impressed. “Anyways, the reason I came here was to invite you down to the workplace. There’s something I want to show you.”

“What is it?” Because Steve can’t help but be a little bit wary of Tony’s inventions, and frankly right now he’s a little too tired and pent up to deal with robots exploding in his face.

“Just trust me.”

So Steve follows Tony down to his workshop basement. It looks a lot like the one on the ship, except even larger and somehow even more cluttered. Half-finished projects dangle from the ceiling and fall over tables, and in one corner there is the skeleton of what Steve assumes is going to be a Starkmobile one day. One table seems to be holding a suit of armor that matches Tony’s gloves and boots…

“That’s still under development,” Tony says when he notices Steve’s fingers lightly skirting over the metal. “Your present is over here.”

“Present?” Tony made something for _him_? He’s so busy, he shouldn’t have time for something like that…

“Catch,” Tony throws something metallic looking to Steve who catches it and sees that it’s a… strange bracelet of some sort. It’s a thick metal band, about three fingers wide. On top there seems to be some sort of metal loop with holes in it…

“Thanks Tony, your gift is very… unique.” Steve says quizzically while he slips the band onto his arm. Maybe this is fashionable today?

“There’s that word again,” Tony sighs and stares, “You don’t even know what it is, do you.” Steve shakes his head and Tony reaches out to grab his arm. His fingers brush lightly against his skin, calloused and warm, before they begin to demonstrate the bracelet. “I notice when you fight you have a habit of doing this rock shield thing – very cool by the way, real iconic – and you tend to have a hard time doing it with water and air. This bracelet should help facilitate that, and also cut down the necessary concentration by half so you can focus on other, more important things.”

“Tony…” Steve stares at the band of metal around his wrist, barely even comprehending how Tony could do something like this for him.

“Don’t worry about it taking up too much of my time or anything, I mean really it was no big deal. I just… wanted you to have it, so…”

“Thank you, I love it.” Steve loves it when Tony smiles like this, when there isn’t a hint of pretention or illusion there, just honest happiness.

Steve especially likes the fact that he’s the one who put the smile on Tony’s face. It sends a little bloom of warmth through his chest.

“Yeah well…” Tony rubs his head awkwardly, “It’ll work for fire too, once you master it.” He tacks the last part on as an afterthought, and Steve can barely suppress his short laugh.

“Right…” Steve slumps into one of Tony’s chairs, his body suddenly incredibly tired, “I think that might take a while.”

“Thor not quite the firebending master you thought he was?” Tony asks as he takes the seat next to Steve, who just shakes his head.

“Thor’s not the problem,” Steve mutters, and the fact that he’s willing to talk to Tony about this – about this own shortcoming – says something serious.

“What is the problem, then?” Tony asks quietly, and Steve closes his eyes in response.

“You know I have a… history with firebending. I just- I can’t make myself firebend. I end up stopping at the last moment, and bottling it up inside. Fire… it’s destruction. It’s death and turmoil, and I don’t want to be the cause of something like that.”

Tony has lived in the Fire Nation all of his life, has invented gloves that allow him to be just like a firebender, so there’s a chance that Steve has offended him with that last outburst, but when he looks up he sees Tony unbuttoning his shirt. Um. Okay. Steve doesn’t really know how to respond to that.

“I firebend, sort of, do you think I destroy?” Tony asks as his nimble fingers work the buttons through their holes. Steve shouldn’t find that distracting.

“No, no you would never-.”Tony doesn’t destroy, Tony builds.

“I never told you about why I made the gloves, or the boots, did I? No, I didn’t think so.” Tony undoes the last button and takes off his shirt, leaving only the undershirt underneath. “I’ve told you that my father was a weapons designer during the war, and I inherited that position from him. I made weapons. I didn’t… weapons were explained to me as the ultimate peace-keeping tool. The best defense is a strong offense, and all of that. I thought that by continuing to build weapons I was… Whatever. It doesn’t matter. The point was it was wrong, and I think some part of me knew it was wrong. So I wanted to stop.”

Tony stops, looks at Steve to make sure that he’s following, and he looks… not scared, but wary. Like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Steve just nods at him though, waits for him to continue.

“My father’s old business partner seemed to have no such qualms though. Obadiah was there to guide me through every step of the way, only I didn’t know that he was selling our weapons to anti-organization groups. I found out the day they sunk and raided my old boat – with my own weapons – and kidnapped me.”

Tony pauses at Steve’s sharp intake of breath, looks at him with concerned eyes (and how could he be concerned for _Steve_ right now?) before continuing.

“Long story short, they wanted me to build things for them, I didn’t want to. There was another man in there with me, Yinsen, and he helped me build the boots and the gloves, as well as…”

Tony takes off the undershirt, and underneath it Steve can see a series of scars and a sheath of flat metal screwed into his sternum. It should be grotesque, but there’s something about it that’s honestly eloquent. He reaches out his hand without even thinking about it and runs it across the metal – he thought it would be cool but instead it’s warm and vibrant. There is not heartbeat underneath his palm, just a low hiss and rumble. Steve’s mind is turning with the information he’s received.

Tony had never told him about his past before, and Steve had always assumed that it was just Tony being private, but now he realizes the truth. By telling Steve about his past, Tony is putting himself in an incredibly vulnerable position. The fact that he trusts Steve this much…

“They had messed with my heart before, and this was the only way – it’s powered by one of my engines. I won’t bore you with the science, but basically it means that I actually have to power up my own heart,” Tony lets out a small laugh and Steve feels it shake against his hand, which he still hasn’t moved from Tony’s chest come to think of it. “Anyways, I’m not telling you this because I want you to feel bad for me, and I realize that it might make you hate me actually-“

Steve blinks, how could he hate Tony for this? He built weapons, yes, but he also _stopped_ building weapons.

“I’m telling you this because you need to understand why fire is important. Yes, fire can destroy, and burn, and hurt. That’s what my weapons did. But fire… Steve fire isn’t death, fire is life! Fire is creation, and industry, and invention.”

 Tony’s voice is suddenly animated, his hands moving around every which way as a light burns in his eyes. He’s absolutely hypnotizing.

“Steve, civilization wouldn’t exist without fire, I wouldn’t exist without fire. There’s a dark side to it, yes, but can you say that water has never drowned someone? That earth has never crushed someone?”

“No.”

“Exactly, you can’t. The potential for harm exists in any of the elements, and Steve… you’re a good person, the best I’ve ever met probably.” Steve’s face absolutely does not go red at the compliment, or at the way Tony is staring at him. “You’re not… you would never use fire to destroy.”

“How can you be sure?” Steve asks, because he can feel the rage under his skin sometimes and he has seen people do terrible things, but Tony just shakes his head and puts his hand over Steve’s, right on top of his heart.

“I’m sure.”

\---

Ba Sing Se is just as large as Natasha remembers it to be, and the wall is just as effective at keeping her out. Which is to say not effective at all.

It doesn’t take much to find out where Betty Ross lives – the daughter of the head of the Dai Li is pretty memorable after all.

Natasha has never liked the Dai Li. Anybody who uses brainwashing as a tool for totalitarian peace-keeping deserved to be taken down, and taken down hard in her opinion. That’s not why she’s here though, so she makes sure to keep to the shadows on her way to Betty’s house. She’s sure the door is under constant surveillance, and she doesn’t need that sort of inquiry right now.

In the morning, Betty will find the letter slipped under her door. Natasha doesn’t know what her reaction to it will be, and she’s not sure that Bruce even expects anything from it

It does make Natasha realize that she has a letter of her own to send.

It’s only a few lines, completely encoded because Natasha doesn’t trust the woman sending the messenger hawk (she buys the hawk too, just to make sure she leaves no loose ends) but Clint will know what it means, and that will be enough.

Natasha leaves Ba Sing Se after that, because she knows the name Laufeyson and she knows where she needs to go.

\---

“Just reach into your inner flame, let it breathe,” Thor instructs, and Steve nods.

“Yes Sifu,” and with the thrust of his hands and the shift of his feet, he lets everything breathe. All of the rage, and the fair, and the happiness, and the passion – all of it is let out into the open in a ball of fire. It feels… it feels really good, actually. To give in like that. To breathe.

Tony’s words hadn’t magically fixed everything; Steve was still worried, and he had made it clear to Thor that he wanted to focus solely on control for at least the next several weeks, but they had helped.  He thought once more about the feel of the other man’s fingers on his skin and the way his eyes would turn gold in the sunlight.

Steve had a lot of things living under his skin right now, and this growing attraction was one of them. It wasn’t just Tony’s looks though (though devilishly handsome were good words to describe him), it was his kindness, his hidden selflessness, and his intelligence that ultimately drew Steve to him. The only problem is that Steve’s not quite sure what to do about this.

“Very good Avatar!” Thor laughs, and he delivers a hearty thump onto Steve’s back, and brings him back to reality.

“Atta boy!” Clint yells from his perch on the roof, and then he blinks, “Ooh, shiny.” In one fluid motion he launches himself off the roof and into a roll on the ground, and then suddenly he’s holding Steve’s wrist with the bracelet high into the air. “Nice bling.”

“Tony made it.” Steve says, because he doesn’t really know what the word bling means but he’ll assume it’s a compliment.

“Did he?” Clint smirks a bit and then laughs, “I’d ask him if he’d build me a new bow, but I don’t want Phil to get jealous.” Steve’s cheeks burn with the comment. Tony didn’t mean it like that… did he?

“Lovely archer, do not interrupt our lessons!” Thor says, but he’s still all laughs as he hands Steve another leaf. “Now, keep the edges of the leaf slightly ablaze – nothing more and nothing less. You are going to learn control.”

\---

Five days, and Clint has finally gotten word from Natasha.

Clint clutches the letter to his chest, and strokes his hand carefully through the hawk’s feathers.

She’s okay. Natasha is okay.

Not that he ever doubted that she would be, but having this confirmation helps a lot. Whenever Clint isn’t there to watch her back, to be her eyes in the sky while she trails the ground, he can’t help but be a little afraid. For both of them.

“What do you have there?” Bruce asks, eyeing the bird warily.

“‘Tasha says hi.” Is all Clint says, and a wave of relief seems to fall over the table.

“It’s good to know that she’s doing well,” Steve says, and Clint smiles.

“Yeah. It is. Also she gave me this bird, so that’s cool.” Clint shrugs and Phil looks at him, because Phil knows what this means to Clint, knows every emotion Clint isn’t betraying right now. “I think I’m going to name him Hawky.”

“I’m sure Hawky will deliver your messages faithfully!” Thor cries, but Tony just shakes his head.

“You cannot name a hawk Hawky. Is it going to get along with the moose?”

“Harley has always been great with all animals. Although I agree Clint, Hawky is a terrible name.”

“Hawkeye,” Phil says. And that’s that.

\---       

Contrary to popular belief, being ambushed by a group of seven men on the way from Ba Sing Se is not Natasha’s idea of a good time. It definitely doesn’t help that four of them are benders, and that another one is clearly a YuYan archer.

“You know,” she laughs as she flips the archer over her shoulder, “You’re definitely not the first YuYan archer I’ve fought, and you’re nowhere near as good.”

It doesn’t take long for her to take down the rest of them. Amateurs, which means that they weren’t sent here to capture her, or kill her.

“Why have you come here?”

“We come with a message,” one of them laughs, despite the fact that he might be bleeding out. Natasha just stares at him, her eyes unmoving and her mouth set. “He wants you to know that he’s watching you – he’s watching them.”

“Do you know about the Winter Soldier?” Natasha asks, because she doesn’t have time to think about a villain’s riddles right now, and because she needs to find information anywhere he can.

“I’ve met the Winter Soldier,” the dying man says, “And your friends will be meeting him soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun. Dun. DUUUNNN.  
> As always I hope you're enjoying the fic.  
> Questions, comments, concerns. I love them.


	11. The Oncoming Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no real way of saying how sorry I am that this took forever, and I'd completely understand if no one was reading this anymore. This past year was.... sort of crazy. But now I'm back for the summer, and I really *really* want to finish this thing. So. Here we go. Hopefully I haven't completely lost the knack.

Bruce notices things. Some people think that he doesn’t. They think that he’s too caught up in his own mind filled with equations and ideas, that he’ll only notice a change in formula or the color inside of a test tube.

But that’s not true. Bruce is pretty good at noticing people things too. If he hadn’t noticed the way that Betty smiled at him, the way she seemed to linger a moment longer than the rest of the military personnel, then he never would have asked her out.

After the other guy came around, it became even more important for Bruce to notice other people. To notice the way they moved around him, to see the tell-tale glint of anger or mockery in their eyes – anything that could set him off. But he learned. He needed to save the world from himself, so he learned.

So yeah, Bruce is good at noticing things, and the subtle shift in Tony and Steve’s relationship is completely not lost on him. There was gentleness to the way they treated each other now, a cadence to their voice when they spoke to each other that Bruce had never heard from either of them before. Which could only mean one thing. 

“So, Tony…” Bruce pauses a moment before trying to figure out how exactly he wants to phrase his question, then decides that the best thing to do is just bowl ahead, “How long have you and Avatar been sleeping together?”

“WHA- gah!” Tony barely avoids soldering his hand in surprise, and then looks up at Bruce with narrowed eyes. “What? No. No. No way. Why would you think that?” He’s already putting his attention back on his work – he’s been completely remodeling his gloves for the better part of two days while they wait for the test results on the new batch of engine fuel to finish up.

Once the fuel is done they’ll probably head into fulltime production of it, Bruce thinks. They’ve already started several factories on making the bodies and engines of the Starkmobiles, and the fuel will be the last piece of the puzzle.

“You’ve been... different around each other. The way you look at each other it’s… well it’s sweet I guess.” Because Bruce knows that if he tells Tony about the love that wells up in his eyes when Steve passes him a muffin at breakfast or the way he spent 10 minutes absentmindedly staring out the window at Steve and Thor training, then Tony will turn tail and run.

“Look, Bruce, I know you miss Betty but this is… you’ve got it wrong. You’re projecting.” Tony doesn’t look up from his work, and Bruce can hear the smallest edge to his voice. Not sleeping together then, and that’s a sore spot.

“Tony, I do miss Betty,” and Bruce wants to thank Tony for not going any farther than that, but of course Tony doesn’t even realize how far Bruce went for Betty. “But I’m telling you I’ve seen the way you look at him. The way he looks at you-“

 “Thank you so much for sharing, why don’t we paint our nails and trade blow-job tips? Make a real night of it.” Tony snaps a little bit, but there isn’t much bite to his voice. It’s like the early days when Bruce first found himself on the boat, when Tony woud hide behind quick-comebacks and scowls in order to stay away from everyone. But he’d never done it to Bruce before.

“Okay,” Brush pushes forwards, “If you’re not sleeping with him-“

“I’m not.”

“Then I think you _want_ to sleep with him, and I think that’s something you need to talk about.” Tony’s back remains turned to Bruce, hunched over and tense.

Bruce gets it. He does. He’s run away before, in order to save the person he loved. Still loves. It wasn’t a mistake, not then. Not for a Bruce who couldn’t be sure what would knock him out and put the other guy into a murderous rage. This is a different situation though, and Tony needs to hear the truth.

“Well, anyone would want to sleep with him,” Tony finally says, “I mean you’ve seen his ass.”

“So you’re just going to avoid the real problem.” Bruce doesn’t have time for bullshit these days.

“No!” Tony finally turns around and lifts the goggles off of his face, giving Bruce a hard, angry look. The skin around the goggles is dark and caked with soot; he’s been in here for a full day at least. “Look, he doesn’t… I can’t… How do you even know he’s been giving me looks? He’s been so busy with firebending training that we’ve barely seen each other.”

“Awww…” Bruce allows a smile to curve on his face, “You’ve missed him, see? It _is_ sweet.”

“That wasn’t what I meant!”

“Tony, I’m your friend. I notice these things. So when you want to put on your big-boy pants and talk about this… it doesn’t have to be with me. I talked to Pepper-“

“So you’re all just scheming against me.”

“And she’s having the same idea and she would love to work this one out with you. You know, as your friend. Because that’s what friends do.“

Tony doesn’t respond to that, and Bruce decides that that’s a good place to let it rest. He goes back to his formula and Tony goes back to tinkering, until Bruce hears a small sigh come from across the room.

“He’s the Avatar, Bruce.” Tony is looking at his hands; dirty, scarred, and calloused. His voice is soft and low.  “He’s- he’s meant for so much more than me. I mean he’s out there helping people and I’m…”

“Just what do you think your cars will be doing? You’re creating something for the people – and doing it in an environmentally friendly way before anyone else can corner the market with other less savory options.”

“That’s not what I mean. Steve - he’s saving the world.”

“And we’re doing the same thing, or have we both not been helping the Avatar for the past four months?” Some might guess that Bruce wouldn’t think of himself as a hero. That he’d push away all the good they had done in favor of focusing on the dark parts of his life, the times the other guy had come out to play. But instead it’s the opposite. He forces himself to focus on the good things, to make himself see the truth of his actions. He’d go insane otherwise. He just wishes he could get Tony to do the same.

“Yeah, and I want to keep helping him!” Tony pulls the goggles back down over his eyes, and goes back to his soldering. “Steve is my friend first, and I need to protect my friends right now. I don’t know if I can do that if I’m sleeping with him. This is me wearing my big-boy pants, Bruce, and doing what’s best for Steve right now. I need to keep you all safe.”

“Safe from what?” Tony doesn’t answer, and Bruce puts a firm hand on his shoulder. “Tony…?”

“Nothing in specific,” Tony finally says, “I just…”

Whatever Tony is about to say, it’s interrupted when Phil suddenly appears with a piece of paper in his hands and a frown on his face.

“Meeting upstairs, right now. We just got word from Natasha. Something’s coming.”

\---

The message that Natasha had sent back had been written in code of course, because you never knew who could intercept a messenger hawk, but basically it boiled down to something very bad coming for them. Something very bad that was called The Winter Soldier.

Phil knows about The Winter Soldier. He knows that despite the name, he is an earthbender and not a waterbender. He knows that he’s a dangerous criminal, wanted for high level crimes against the organization. He knows that the Winter Soldier has been off the grid for the past 7 years, and was assumed to be deceased.

Phil doesn’t know how Natasha knows who the Winter Soldier is. Her clearance level with the organization isn’t high enough, which means he must be a figure from her past that not even Clint knows about. The thought is troubling to say the least.

“And we’re sure this is the same Winter Soldier?” Tony is asking, “It’s not just some lame copycat?”

“We’re not sure of anything right now, Stark.” Phil’s mind has been reeling since he first received the notice from Natasha. There were so many things to consider, to plan, to think about. It was one of those days that made him happy he’d left his life at the temple, that he had gone out and actually _done_ something with his talents. That he lived a life of excitement. That he really helped people.

“If Natasha sends warning, then the best thing to do is listen to her.” Clint has his arms crossed tight over his chest, and the glare he sends Tony is almost enough to shut him up.

“Well I’m just saying that I have a business to run and I can’t hide my head in the sand from every little threat shoved against me. So excuse me for wanting some verification first.”

Almost.

Phil sighs just a little bit and rubs his arrow before looking over at Steve. The Avatar is staring intently at the pieces of paper in Phil’s hand.

“You have two pieces of paper there,” he says, “One is a letter from Natasha… what’s the other one?”

“It’s a request for aid from an organization group in the Fire Nation Islands. It seems that there have been attacks going through the islands, and this group is worried that their area is about to be hit.”

“So that’s it, don’t you get it?” Tony gives a little laugh and Phil stifles the urge to strangle him. “That’s the threat Natasha wrote about – they’re trying to draw us out. They’re going to ambush us.”

“Of course I have considered that possibility,” because Phil has considered all of the possibilities, “but that doesn’t change the reality of the situation.”

“Which is?”

“That these people need help.” Steve’s voice is a solid declaration of his intentions, even if he doesn’t know it yet.

Phil watches Steve digest the information, teeth worrying his bottom lip as he tries to sort through all of the possibilities presented to him, and then he comes to a decision.

“Right. The boat is going to be too slow so we’ll have to take an air bison, which means Harley will have to stay here. Somebody else needs to stay here with him, to defend against a secondary attack using the first one as a diversion. When I get to the islands I’ll-“

“No.” Tony’s voice is dangerous, but Steve’s voice when he answers is worse.

“Excuse me?”

“I said no. This is a trap, can’t you see that? You’ll be walking right into their hands.”

“You can’t stop me from going Tony. These people need my help and it is my _duty_ -“

“I know it’s your duty, but it’s my duty as your friend to keep you safe!” Tony cries, and Phil almost can’t stop himself from raising his eyebrows in surprise. He and Clint share a look as Steve’s face softens, just the tiniest bit. Yeah. These two are going to be insufferable once they get their shit together.

“This is just like the other times we’ve fought the bad guys together, nothing’s changed. I’ll be as safe as I can, but those people need me and I’m not going to let them down just because it may or may not be a trap. It’s my duty to-” Steve’s skin is starting to flush with anger and Tony doesn’t seem to be backing down either.

“It’s your duty to stay alive, and help guide the world, and you would be safer if you stayed here. I don’t let stupid decisions happen on my watch.”

“Unless you’re the one making them.” Tony draws himself up at Steve’s words, but the Avatar doesn’t let him interject. “Anyways, this decision isn’t stupid. It’s tactically sound, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Before Tony can even get a word out, Bruce steps in-between the two.

“Tony and I will stay here, and finish up the project we’re working on. You four go to the Fire Islands. It’ll be fine. Okay? It’ll be fine.”

“A rousing good decision Bruce! I’m sure the Islands will be glad to see their friend and prince return to them with the help of The Avatar!”

Except for Thor (and honestly, Phil is never so sure about Thor) none of them leave the room happy. Steve stalks down the hallway to his room and slams the door, while Tony disappears to his workshop in an angry huff. Bruce is trying to hide it, but he’s clearly worried about the upcoming attack, while Clint hasn’t been happy since the second Natasha left the house. Phil… would be happier if they had more information. But he’ll do his best to figure this one out.

-

Afterwards, when Phil is putting a bag of supplies together, Clint finds him and presses his fingers lightly against the small of Phil’s back.

“You know, if those two don’t get their shit together soon I may go insane.”

“Everything in its own time.” Phil continues packing and waits for Clint to say what he actually came here to say.

“If Natasha hasn’t told me about this guy, this Winter Soldier guy, then it must be pretty bad. So I won’t be pulling any punches.”

Phil knows what that means. If Clint has a kill shot, he’ll take it, no matter what his orders are.

“Are you sure Natasha would want that?” Because Phil can’t stop Clint from making his own mistakes, can’t stop him from diving head first into everything like he always does, but he can point out the angles that Clint hasn’t seen. Usually it’s enough to make Clint reconsider, but this time the archer just shakes his head.

“I’ve got to keep her safe.”

\---

The air bison has them in the islands in only a couple hours, and while Steve loves Harley with all of his heart it’s times like these where he wishes his animal guide had the ability to fly. Imagine how convenient that would be.

They land on a different island than the one they met Thor on; it’s a bit bigger, and closer to the mainland, which means that any battle happening here will have more dangerous repercussions. Steve sees a group of people already waiting for them when they disembark.

“Captain Danvers!” Thor greets a strong looking blond woman, who is indeed wearing something that Steve might guess is a Captain’s uniform. The two bow towards each other, and then Danvers pulls Thor into a quick hug.

“Thor, it’s so good to see you again. Thank you for coming.”

“I trust you are doing well! Oh,” Thor gestures towards Steve, Phil, and Clint, “Allow me to introduce my friends. Phil, son of Coul and the archer Clint who are both from your organization. As well as-“

Before Thor can even introduce Steve, Captain Danvers has figured out who he is, and bows slightly.

“Avatar, it is an honor to meet you,” They shake hands, and her grip is firm and her skin is soft. “Captain Carol Danvers, head of the Fire Nation Island branch of the SHIELD organization.”

The what organization? Did she say Shield?

“Good to meet you too, Captain. I hope we can work together to solve this problem.” Steve gives a small smile that Carol returns, but it quickly slips into a frown.

“Problem might be an understatement.”

Steve’s previous impressions of organization members have not been excellent, to say the least. In fact, sometimes he just sat down and wondered how he was going to deal with an organization that had become so simultaneously corrupt and ingrained into the society. But the fact that Captain Danvers had actually requested backup was a good first impression, and it becomes clear as she lays out the situation that she really cares about the people she’s protecting.

“They’ve already attacked three of the outer islands, and they seem to be burning a clear path to the mainland – a clear path that heads right here.” She taps the island on the map and looks at Steve for a reaction.

“Why this island in specific?”

“Natural resources abound, already a major trading post, well placed to prepare against an attack from the mainland. Tons of reasons, really, all leading to it being a great future base of operations. But we can’t allow that to happen. These people are depending on us, and the last thing I want to do is tell them that they have to pack up and leave while their houses are all burned to the ground.”

Steve shares a look with Phil and Clint while Captain Danvers starts to roll up the map. This sort of strategic land grab is exactly what they were afraid of.

“So what do you suggest, Captain?”

“Well, we can’t go searching for them, unfortunately.” Captain Danvers smiles ruefully, “believe me, if I could I would have people scouring the globe for these assholes. Unfortunately, the ocean is almost limitless and our resources are not. Really the only thing to do is prepare and wait.”

“And then what?”

The Captain shrugs.

“And then we kick their asses.”

“Verily!” Thor laughs and claps Clint on the back.

At this moment, that’s good enough for Steve.

\---

Afterwards, when they’re leaving the tent, Steve pulls Clint aside to ask him a slightly embarrassing question, to which Clint nearly doubles over laughing.

“Are you serious? Did you really not know the name of the organization?”

“Well… you always just called it The Organization. So I assumed…” Which, Steve realizes in retrospect, maybe have been a slightly stupid assumption. Who just calls something “the organization”?

“No, it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Stands for uhh… ummm…” Clint scratches his head for a second, “I swear they change it ever week, I can never keep it straight. Something like Strategic… Helping… Inter… Elemental… Legion… Defense. Yeah. That’s it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Steve’s brow furrows as he tries to sort out what the name might actually be. Strategic seems correct. So does Element. Legion and Defense seem a little redundant. Helping and Inter seem very out of place. Clint just shrugs.

“Yeah. Well. Not my problem. Just call it SHIELD. Like that thing you do with the pretty bracelet Stark made you. Because they try to copy The Avatar, and The Avatar defends the world. Get it? The words don’t really matter.”

Oh. Right.

\---

It has taken Natasha two passing ostritch-horse drawn carriages, a passing river boat, and finally a kind air nomad, but she is finally somewhere close to the Fire Nation Islands, albeit still about two days away. As soon as she realized what was happening, as soon as she realized that The Winter Soldier was being sent into battle (not James, not really) then she made the decision to give up the Laufeyson lead. For now, at least.

She knows that Loki isn’t going anywhere, and in the meantime it’s more important to make sure that her team is okay. And that Clint isn’t doing something fucking stupid, which 10:1 he probably was (and Natasha means that lovingly). Then she also has to make sure that James…

Natasha doesn’t know what to expect with the Winter Solider. Or really, she knows exactly what to expect, and that terrifies her. But she has to try to save him. No matter what, she has to try and bring him back. She owes him that much. In truth, she owes him so much more.

She only wish she knew who she was going to be saving from who.

 --

The waiting is the hardest part – long drawn out hours where you still need to be on constant alert, nothing but your thoughts and the wind to keep you company. It reminds Steve of the war, waiting in the trenches for the next enemy attack. He hopes distantly that his next big problem as Avatar will be something of a more spiritual nature. Time really flies in the spirit world, mostly because there is not actual concept of time at all. To tell the truth, it’s a little disconcerting.

He tends to draw in times like these. It’s easy to drop the paper and fight if he needs to, it’s not like his scratches are actually valuable, and it’s a good way of focusing his chi and preparing himself for the fights ahead.

He doesn’t mean to draw Tony, but he does (which means that maybe he actually does mean to draw Tony). He can’t get the eyes exactly right though (he never can) so he adds a pair of Tony’s goggles, dark and shiny and covering half of his face. Making it so you can never tell what he’s feeling, or what exactly is running through his head.

Just like this morning, when Steve had no idea what Tony was thinking. Honestly, what was all of that about keeping Steve safe? He’s the Avatar; he’s never going to be safe. Tony has no right to lose it like that, and try and stop Steve from doing his job. They’re supposed to be working together, supposed to trust each other, and this is the exact opposite of that. It’s like they took two steps forward only to take four steps back and it took every ounce of strength Steve had not to slap piece of rock around Tony’s big mouth just so he couldn’t _talk_ anymore.

“Avatar?” It’s Captain Danvers’ voice that pulls Steve from his angry internal rant, and Steve quickly stuffs his paper pad into his pack and hoists himself off of the ground to greet her.

Normally Steve tends to dissuade people from calling him Avatar as opposed to Steve, but since they are dealing with a military-esque situation he thinks that labels and the chain of the command might actually be a way of calming people down. It also means that he’ll be able to command more authority during battle, which is always important with new troops.

“Yes Captain?”

“We have quite a bit of time on our hands, I was wondering if you’d like to meet the troops. It’d be good for morale.” Captain Danvers looks at him expectantly and Steve all but lurches forward.

“Of course! I’m sorry I… I should have that of that sooner. I guess I was just…” Steve gestures helplessly around him, but Captain Danvers nods her understanding.

“I get it. We all have different ways of getting ready for a battle. But these soldiers need you, Avatar.”

“I know.”

They walk over to where a group of tense looking men and women are waiting. Some are chatting, some are bending, and some are just keeping to themselves. No one is really paying attention to Captain Danvers until she gives a little cough, and then suddenly everyone is at attention.

“This,” The Captain says, gesturing to Steve, “is Avatar Steve. He’ll be helping us in the upcoming battle.”

“Hello,” Steve looks around at the group. “As we prepare to head into battle – and this is a battle – we have to remember what we’re fighting for. You’re members of SHIELD, which means you don’t fight for glory, or aggression. You fight to defend. You fight to save the world.” Steve takes a breath and tries to look all of them in the eyes, one by one, a trick he found was helpful back in the war. “These people are depending on us. They believe that if we work together, we can keep them safe. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to help them, not only because we have to, but because we want to.”

Because that’s what Tony couldn’t get, what people all throughout Steve’s life could never understand. It’s his duty. It’s a burden he was given that he’s had to carry on his back for years. But it was never something he didn’t want. Never something he wouldn’t choose in a heartbeat. He wants to help people, and being The Avatar is just the perfect opportunity to do it. He would give up his safety in a heartbeat if it meant he could secure it for others.

When he looks at this organization group, he doesn’t see the no-shows at that dying town, nor does he see the group that let their greed and bitterness turn them into thieves. He sees people like himself; people who just want to help. Thank the Spirits, not everything about the organization was a complete mess.

\---

“Bruce, told me what happened, and I think you over-stepped it with Steve this morning.

Pepper is eating an omelet (a damn good one, for once) while Tony sulks and pokes at his bacon.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re not in control here Tony. You don’t decide what people do or how they move-“

“But if they had just listened to me. I…” Tony looks up and down and around until Pepper literally grabs his face and forces him to look at her.

 “Tony, what have you done?”

“I haven’t _done_ anything,” Tony frowns, “not yet anyways. But if they leave then I can’t… Look, Rhodey said something was coming. So when that something comes, I need them here so that I can make sure they’re all… that you’re all…”  Tony looks around, clearly trying to avoid the word, but Pepper knows better.

“Safe.” Pepper answers, and Tony nods. “Tony, why didn’t you tell anyone about this?”

“They’re targeting Stark Industries, Pep. That makes it my problem. Not theirs.”

“No, I’m in charge of Stark Industries right now, so that makes it _our_ problem. God Tony you can be so… you’re just so infuriating sometimes.” Even though she feels like strangling him, Pepper grabs Tony’s hand. “What exactly did Rhodey say?”

“Just that they weren’t sure what was happening. Someone’s targeting us though, Pepper. I’d prefer you here, where I can keep an eye on you, but if you and Happy want to get away from it I’d understand that too.”

“I still don’t really understand why you didn’t just _tell_ anyone-“

 “I need to do this my way. I have to keep… I have to keep the people I care about safe.” Tony’s eyes are open and honest as he looks at Pepper, and she’s reminded of drunken ramblings of love and Tony disappearing to the organization in order to give her space to run the company and find her life outside of Tony Stark again.

“I understand that Tony, but you can’t control everything. Sometimes, we can’t keep everyone safe. And sometimes… we need others to keep us safe. Okay?” Pepper squeezes Tony’s hand but he frowns before getting up and leaving the room.

“I can’t accept that.”

Maybe he thinks she won’t tell Phil. But Pepper learned a long time ago that sometimes doing the best thing for Tony meant acting exactly opposite his interests.

She and Happy will leave, they’ll go stay somewhere safe. Pepper’s not stupid, and she has great self-preservation skills (despite all evidence to the contrary). She knows any attack upon the mansion has a good chance of killing her. But Phil is getting an urgent telegram. She just hopes he can read it before the battle starts.

\---

There is a face in the pool of water in front of The Winter Soldier.

It says words he understands, and then vanishes.

The Winter Soldier stands up. Flexes. Breathes. Turns around and walks.

They’ll be at the island soon, and he is ready for battle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES OF COURSE I PUT CAROL DANVERS INTO THIS ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 
> 
> If you're not reading Captain Marvel right now, you're doing it wrong. 
> 
> We'll get more Carol next chapter I promise, along with some other new friends. This is still technically an MCU fic, but yeah expect a lot of 616 references.
> 
> Hey. Can anyone guess what the theme of this chapter was?
> 
> Uh.... questions, comments, concerns you know what to do (I think, maybe it's been so long that you don't remember)


	12. The Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh an update wow! Who is even still reading this thing!   
> As always a big thank you to Christine

Morning found the troops still waiting for an attack, and Thor on watch duty. He didn’t understand – if the villains were just making their way through the Fire Islands, then by all accounts they should’ve been arrived by now. After spending years hopping from one island to another, Thor of all people knew the exact travel times between them.

But the scourges of the Fire Nation haven’t come, and Thor is a Prince on watch duty and he can’t let himself seem anxious or dispirited to the troops around him. He isn’t The Avatar, but his duties to the people were just as important and he has to remember them and hold fast. So he greets his new watch compatriots with a smile and a booming laugh.

“Ah! Welcome to my campfire, new watchmen! Pray tell, what are your names? You must know that I am Thor, son of Fire Lord Odin!”

The two organization members exchange a look before sitting down in front of the fire that Thor had going.  The man is a monk, and the woman is dressed in plain organization clothing – no way of telling what nation she’s from. Which, Thor supposes, is the point.

When he was young, Thor had been suspicious of SHIELD. It seemed that they wanted to take power from the four nations’ rightful rulers, like they were trying to weaken the Fire Nation and prevent them from ever truly rebuilding after the war. But then he was sent into the Islands, where there were few soldiers, and many monthly raiders, and the only people he could ever depend on to _help_ were the organization members. They never treated him like a prince, never gave him any special consideration, they just asked what he could do to fix things. It turned out that Thor couldn’t do a lot at the time. But he learned.

The woman, a dark beauty with bouncing curls and curvy hips, sits down next to Thor with a smile, while the monk maintains his standing position. He seems stiff and uncomfortable, which stands in stark contrast to the woman’s graceful ease.

“It is an honor, Prince Thor. My name is Wanda, and this is my husband, Vision.”

“Please Vision, won’t you sit?” Thor pats the seat next to him invitingly, but Vision reminds standing.

“Thank you, Prince, but frankly I am worried about the late arrival of our enemies, and am going to go scout over the ocean. If you’ll excuse me-“  The Vision takes out his staff and unfolds his glider – longer than Phil’s, and a deep gold compared to his purple – then presses a kiss to Wanda’s cheek before taking off.

Thor sits back, his eyebrows raised. That was abrupt, to say the least.

“Forgive him,” Wanda moves her hands and raises the fire higher; a firebender then. “My husband did not mean to offend, I’m sure.”

“He’s not wrong about the enemy, sadly. It is probably good of him to do this.” Thor replies grimly. “I have sent my concerns on to Captain Danvers already, but I did not want to worry the two of you.”

 

“He’s just worried about everything right now. It’s the first time we’ve been away from our children for so long, and Vision is… stressed, I supposed.” Wanda bends the fire idly.

“You have children?” Thor brightens at that. He loves children.

“Twin boys; William and Thomas. William is a firebender like me, while Thomas takes after his father… in his bending, at least, if not his temperament.” Wanda smiles as she remembers her children, and Thor finds himself foolishly thinking of the days when he and Lady Jane will be able to share that same smile as they gaze at their own young ones.

He misses her a lot.

Then he thinks of the look on his father’s and mother’s faces when they remember Loki. The utter hurt and betrayal they have a hard time hiding, the tears that spring to his mother’s eyes when she looks at their family portrait, and sees two rowdy children crammed into fancy clothes and tamed hair. Maybe Thor can wait to have children after all.

“It must be difficult to have a job that takes you from them.”

“We try to only take missions on our home island, but sometimes when the organization calls, you have no choice but to answer. It’s unfortunate but…” Wanda’s eyes look into the distance, possibly searching for her husband, or maybe her children, “it was the only way we really knew how to help. We come from two different nations, and life hasn’t always been easy for us because of that. If we can help make the world easier for others, then it’s all worth it, isn’t it?”

Thor nods. He’s proud of the organization members in the Fire Nation. They’re not all perfect. They don’t all do the best job. But the ones like Wanda ad her husband who try to truly make a difference, they make it all worth it.

Or at least, that’s what Thor thinks, but he knows from Anthony’s rantings that his childhood friend feels differently.

Thor often wonders if there isn’t some way to change SHIELD so that both he and people like Anthony could agree with it. Make it better; more effective, friendlier, and more helpful. Maybe with the right changes he could make sure that Wanda and Vision didn’t have to be far from the cries of their children.

Then again, a Fire Nation prince did not have the power to make those changes. There is a strict “hands off” policy regarding the organization and the nations’ leaders. Which is probably for the best, as the world has already seen what happens when one nation works to accumulate too much power.

Thor carries that legacy now, and he carries it alone.

“Are you worried that you won’t be able to come home to them? Your children, I mean.”

“Of course I am. But I know that I will. We will. We have to.”

That’s what makes Wanda a good mother, Thor thinks. That’s what makes her a good organization member, he also thinks.

The two sit and chat by the fire for a while longer, waiting for Vision to return. Wanda is good company, her voice low and soft and sounds almost like rain falling against the flower petals in Thor’s mother’s garden.

Once again, Thor is overcome with how much he misses Jane. Soon. He’ll see her soon. After this mission. He swears it.

They have just finished talking about their favorite fire-flake recipes, when Wanda spots Vision flying in from the distance. When he gets closer they can see the look on his face; he has seen something.

“They’re coming,” is all he says, and then the three run to Captain Danvers.

The battle is almost here.

\---

“So,” Bruce starts as they wait nervously for the new fuel results. They should be done sometime within the next day. “We’re staying at this house. Even though we know that maybe you’re a target. Of people we don’t know anything about.”

“Yup.” Tony is still off working on his suit of armor thing. If Bruce is being honest, it looks a little too heavy to be able to do much, but he’s not an engineer so he’ll just leave it to Tony.

“Why is that a good idea?”

“Because they’re not going to hit us, they’re going to hit the organization on that stupid island. But I do think they’re going to send something, or someone, to the house. Which is why we’re here to protect it. Like we agreed to from the start.”

“You know, I didn’t think someone was _actually_ going to come here.” Bruce looks nervously at the machine, then at Tony, then back at the machine. What is he not getting here? If Bruce… loses it, if he hulks out, he will literally kill Tony. Hell, he might literally kill half the island.

“Well,” Tony purses his lips, his voice getting snide, “I did want more people to be here, but some people decided they wanted to go out and gallivant around the islands.”

“In order to save people.”

“A noble pursuit, and exactly what I was trying to do by keeping them here.”

“You could save me – and probably yourself – by getting us out of here.”

“Nope.”

They’re quiet for a bit, just the whir of the machine and an occasional buzz from Tony fiddling with wiring. Bruce wonders if Tony will ever be done working on that thing. If he’ll ever look at it say, “good enough”. Probably not. Then Bruce speaks again.

“Tony, I know this means a lot to you, but your designs aren’t worth your life.”

Then Tony sets his hands down on the table, lifts up his goggles, and glares at Bruce like he’s never done before. Not even yesterday when Bruce was teasing him about Steve.

“Okay, first of all, yes. They are worth my life. I think you of all people would know what happens when your designs fall into the wrong hand. I think you of all people would know that there is positive and negative energy in everything, and that it’s our duty to only let the positive out.”

That was a low blow, but it was true. Bruce still thought that it would be better for him to be alive to fix his mistakes then die trying to prevent them from being made. Unless dying fixed the mistake, but that was a whole different story. Unfortunately, that wouldn't fix it for Bruce. 

Creating the other guy was nothing like inventing cars, or even making weapons. Those had purpose, and a choice in how they were used. Bruce's mistake wasn't even a reation at all, just a horrible accident. A side-effect. 

“So what’s second of all?”

“Second of all, we’re not in any danger here. Do you really think Rhodey just shipped out, and left me all alone to defend myself? Moreover, do you really think he was _allowed_ to tell me about Stark Industries being targeted? Believe me, those jerks in the army aren’t going to let the biggest economic boon in the country get taken down.”

“To be fair, I don’t actually know Rhodey. Or anything about the army.”

That causes Tony to stop for a second. Bruce can’t help but roll his eyes.

“Oh. Right. Well, no. That was Rhodey breaking an order to give me a hint. He’s still on the mainland. The army is watching us. They’re going to have our backs, so you’re not in any real danger.” Tony puts his goggles back on, sits down to his suit again, “I would never put any of you in danger. Not purposely, at least. It’s why I told Pepper to get out of here completely – she’s not a part of this weird little disastrous group. At least, she’s not implicated on the same level, and I worked hard to make it that way. She’ll be fine running Stark Industries from our base in the Earth Kingdom.”

It is very easy to misjudge Tony. Especially when he likes to keep his information to himself, doesn’t like to discuss what he’s about to do with anyone, and generally acts kind of like a jerk. Bruce doesn’t think he was in the wrong for getting antsy about this, but it is nice to be reminded that Tony has his back. Or at least, tries to have his back.

Still, it unnerves Bruce, the way that Tony thinks he can just make decisions for others. Like he always knows what’s best. It’s something to watch out for in the future.

“But you know that Pepper sent that telegram before she left. Phil and the rest of them already know.”

“I have a pretty good feeling that Phil knows everything, and the rest of them know zip. You don’t distract your best soldiers right before the big battle. Phil knows that better than anyone.”

\---

Phil knows. Clint and Steve don’t know. But Phil knows and Phil has every intention of keeping it quiet. The army is there watching, he’s sure. Tony and Bruce can handle themselves (yes, even Bruce) and they are going to be fine.

In the meantime, Phil has other things to worry about, like the impending armada coming to meet them.

Here’s the thing about the organization: it is not always good. As much as Phil has devoted his life to it, he’d have to be blind to not see the ineffectiveness, the blind eyes, the cutting corners, and the manipulation. So he constantly works to make it better. He works to make the world better.

If he can gain a measure of control over the organization, he can fix it.

Every success that Phil has is a mark for the organization, as well as against it. It’s him saying I can do things in the way you can’t. I can work to make you good.

“We can take them,” Captain Danvers says. They’re in her tent, gathered around what Steve charmingly referred to as a war table. “We just have to be prepared. Waterbenders with the first volley, earthbenders with the second, and when they reach land we will hit them with fire and airbenders. Non-benders like Clint here will be the last line,”

It’s a good plan. Solid island defense strategy, carefully using all of the organization resources. Captain Danvers clearly knows her stuff, and has experience in the matter. Usually Phil has to override most decisions that local organization members make and plan his own assaults, because at the end of the day they just didn’t know what they were doing. Or at least, compared to Phil, they didn’t know what they were doing. But he’s pretty satisfied with Danvers’s ideas.

The biggest question is actually one that, until half a year ago, Phil never thought he would have to ask.

“What do we do with the Avatar?”

They all turn to look at Steve, who shrugs.

“This isn’t exactly my first run, you know? I’ll start with the waterbenders, drop back to finish the second attack with the earth benders, and be there for the first attack with Thor and the rest of the airbenders and firebenders.”

He says it so simply, but the rest of the room stares at him in response.

“That’s being part of three full attacks, without stopping to rest or retreat. You sure you’re up for that?” Phil asks carefully, and Steve nods.

“Trust me, it wouldn’t be the first time, and they’re are going to need all of the help they can get.” Steve glances at Danvers, “no disrespect meant, ma’am.”

“No, you’re right. We are going to need a lot of help.” Danver sets her mouth into a grim line and actually pounds one fist into the other which Phil has never actually seen someone do unironically before, but on Carol the effect is purely intimidating. “We can do this. We can.”

During this time, Phil has not forgotten about the impending “attack” on Stark Industries as reported to him by Pepper. It’s just that Phil is also a man of information, and he knows what the bigger risk right now is. Whatever is going to happen back on the mainland, it’s not an attack. Not yet, at least. But here, right now, there are thousands of innocent lives at stake. He can’t distract himself, he can’t distract Clint, and most of all he can’t distract The Avatar.

Once they’re outside, and Danvers is rallying the troops with a speech that Phil frankly doesn’t have the patience to listen to, Clint catches up to him and grabs him by the wrist.

“You alright?” Clint asks, and Phil eases his arm out of Clint’s grasp before answering.

“I’m fine. Right now, we need to be most concerned about Steve. This is his first real battle since he woke up.”

“I don’t know if you saw me lop off a guy’s hand last month, but that wasn’t exactly Sunday tea. I’m pretty sure this is the big guy’s second battle.”

“This is different, and you know it. This is fighting within an organization – whether that’s SHIELD or the military. This is preparedness and strategy and first lines and second lines. We need to keep an eye on him. Okay? Nothing too dangerous. Keep him safe.”

Phil stopped worrying about Clint in battle a long time ago.

By which Phil means that he never stopped worrying about Clint in battle, and it’s just easier to pretend to focus on someone else and say everything that he wants to say by proxy.

There is no power on earth that will keep Clint safe if he doesn’t want to be safe. There is no way to reach out and help Tony Stark from a hundreds of miles away. There is no way to prevent this battle. There is no way to train these organization troops to Phil’s liking (there never is). There is no way to do a complete overhaul of the entire organization structure right now. So, telling someone to keep watch over The Avatar is a relatively simple way of exuding some small amount of control that Phil desperately needs to feel at ease.

And Clint must get that, because he gives Phil a squeeze and says,

“It’s going to be okay. I’ll keep an eye on Steve. You’ll keep an eye on me, like you always do. We’ll be okay. This organization group… it’s not like the rest, you know?” Clint looks out at the troops thoughtfully. “They’re more with it, I think. Maybe because of the awesome Captain Danvers, so I’m not so worried.”

“We’ll have to talk about bumping up her station a bit.”

“Yeah.”

The two watch Captain Danvers as she delivers the finishing notes of her speech. The troops are responsive, excited even. Steve is up there with her on the platform, not speaking but standing respectfully at attention since – technically – Captain Danvers outranks him.

Then they begin to move out, into formation.

Clint grabs Phil roughly by the back of the neck, kisses his temple, his forehead, his nose, his lips.

“See you when this is over.”

\---

Bruce fell asleep.

He snores.

Bruce is fast asleep.

He snores again.

Waiting for results isn’t very interesting, so Bruce fell asleep to the whir the machine and the sounds of Tony sulking and tinkering.

And he is still asleep.

Until the timer goes off, which means that the fuel is ready, and the sound actually knocks Bruce out of his chair.

“What?? What! OH! It’s! Tony! Hey!”

Bruce removes the fuel carefully, glancing desperately around the workshop, until he hears Tony thump down the stairs and sees him emerge with a fire-apple in one hand.

“Of course the second I step outside it happens. Isn’t that just the way it always goes. I bet there’s some sort of mathematical formula for that.” Tony takes a bit of the apple and frowns.

Bruce shoves the fuel into Tony’s face, and he takes it and stares at it.

“The results are good Tony. This is it. We’ve done it. I mean, sure, improvements can still be made but… we have a working fuel source.”

Bruce is happy in a way he hasn’t felt since Natasha left and caused a little black hole in their group dynamic. This is it. They’ve done it. They’re going to have Starkmobiles. They’re going to help people. They’re going to give something back to this world, for everything that Bruce has taken away from it. For everything that has been taken away from Bruce.

Tony, however, is just standing there pursing his lips. Thinking. Bruce stops his celebrating and watches him.

“I can’t believe,” he starts, and then, “well no. Scratch that. I can totally believe this. We are going to be manufacturing Starkmobiles. Really if anyone on this earth was going to do it, it was going to be me. And you too, of course. But mostly me.”

Well. That’s Tony Stark for you.

There are two jars of fuel, and Tony takes one over to the Starkmobile engine, pours it in, and fingers the ignition, but doesn’t turn it on.

It’s a glistening hunk of metal, with things going in and out in and looping about a way that Bruce  - who is certainly no engineer – doesn’t understand in the slightest.

“This is going to make my life a hell of a lot easier,” Tony mutters, and when Bruce gives him a look he shrugs and backtracks. “I mean, you know, everyone’s lives a lot easier. Because personal automatic transportation.”

“You do the honors then,” Bruce says, looking pointedly at the engine.

With that, Tony starts up the engine, and boy, does it roar to life. It’s a snarling beast trapped motionless on the table, sending the sound right through Bruce’s heart.

“This changes everything.” Tony says, and Bruce thinks he is remarkably calm for what they have just achieved.

Starkmobiles. What a time to be alive.

The cars aren’t going to be ready tomorrow, obviously. It’s going to take longer than that, with factories going into production and test runs and etc. etc. But they’ve made the first step, and that’s incredible. That’s something to be proud of.

Before this strange group found him, it’s more than Bruce ever thought he’d be able to do with his life. He knows he doesn’t necessarily deserve this luck, but he’s going to hold onto it for all he’s worth.

Tony puts his hand over his heart and sighs, while Bruce starts to laugh and then both of them are laughing and cheering and Tony reaches for a bottle of… not champagne, but sparkling fire-apple cider, and pops it open and they have _done_ it they won this round and that is when the doors to the mansion are blown wide open.

\---

When Carol was a little girl, she decided that she wanted to fly, and so she convinced herself that she could become an airbender. It didn’t matter that all that would come out of her fists was fire – one day, it was going to change. She could do it. She knew it.

Except, of course, that she couldn’t because she was a firebender and not The Avatar, as her father liked to remind her. So she became what she thought was the next best thing to The Avatar; she became an organization member.

The organization isn’t the be-all-end-all of Carol’s life. She knows that there are better options out there. There are many other things she wants to do, places she wants to see, and things she wants to accomplish. She isn’t done finding herself quite yet.

But in the meantime, the organization is a good place to be, for all of its flaws. They pretty much gave her run of the island groups a couple years ago, and since then she’s organized the members to her liking. They have one of the best track records in the entire organization, and she’s proud of that.

One day, Carol might leave for greener pastures, but no matter what adventures are waiting for her in the future, she is here today. She is proud of the work she has done.

And, just for the record, she did learn to fly, just not quite in the way she expected.

“Great Captain!” Thor cries, “what a trick!!”

“Not a trick!” Carol yells back, “just a lot of practice!!”

She kicks the fire from the soles of her shoes, and she’s blasting off again, taking out several enemy combatants as she does so. She flies. She soars. She wins.

When the boats hit, they launched the first attack as planned. The one weakness of the Islands’ organization groups is a lack of waterbenders, which yes is very funny given that they’re literally surrounded by water. Most of them seem to end up missing the arctic too much. Damned if Carol understands why anyone would prefer the ice and snow over the slow heat of the islands, but that’s people for you.

Still, they were able to compensate with the earthbenders, and with the strength of The Avatar which was turning out to be prodigious. Then he dropped back for the third landed attack, sweaty and dirty and not smiling but seemingly okay.

Carol would spare him a glance when she could, and he was more than holding his own. Three people attacked him at once and in return he used a different form of bending on each of them. Carol had never seen anything like it. Obviously. Since The Avatar had been asleep for the past 70 years.

She was especially impressed by the shield thing he did with that bracelet he had on. It seemed like it wouldn’t really work, but it was oddly effective, no matter what the element.

Carol clearly doesn’t have to worry about The Avatar, so she worries about her troops instead. There had already been two casualties that she knows of (she is going to have to talk to the families, she _hates_ that part of her job) but over all they are winning.

This is just a very large group of thugs. Sure, some had had some training, but nothing to the extent of Carol’s organization members’ training. If it weren’t for the sheer numbers, they wouldn’t even stand a chance.

Which just makes Carol angrier, because whoever sent them here knew that. They knew they were just loading up men to send to their deaths, in a gamble for it to work. Which it wasn’t going to.

What a monster.

Carol sees Wanda and Vision carefully guarding each other’s backs. She’s never been fond of children, but the few times she’s met Billy and Tommy she always thought they were cute, generally well behaved little guys. She doesn’t know what was up with the Tommy kid’s hair though.

Wanda and Vision have created a smart attack, using his wind and her lightning. It allows them to keep their backs to each other, and always act on the offensive. They’re good at their jobs, even if they’d rather not be sometimes.

Then there’s Quan Lee and Dong He, Mariko, Esmeralda… Her soldiers. Her organization members. Her friends. Her family.

They’re all holding their own. They’re making Carol proud. They’re defending their homes.

The battle is starting to wind down – don’t ask Carol how she can tell, it’s just one of those things you sense after years in the field – when a strange thing happens. An airbison flies overhead, and a red-headed woman hops off. Right into the middle of the battle.

“Great spirits what the fuck are you doing,” Carol mutters, and then she’s running to where the woman is… surprisingly not dead. Or injured. Or even missing a beat as she clears a path through the remaining assailants.  “I don’t know who you are,” Carol says, “or what the fuck you’re doing, but keep doing it.”

“I’m a friend,” is all the woman says, and at this exact moment that is good enough for Carol.

The battle finishes up pretty quickly after that. No more casualties on their side – though two is two too many – and a minimal amount of casualties on the other side. Just a lot of soon to be jailbirds.

Carol checks on her troops first.

“How are you doing Wanda? Vision?” She crouches down to where they’re sitting. Vision has his wrist bandaged, and Wanda seems to be nursing a serious black eye, but otherwise they appear to be mostly okay.

“We’re fine Captain, thank you.” Wanda smiles, “it’ll be good to see the boys tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they missed you.”

Once the rest of her people attended to, Carol turns her attention on The Avatar and his crew, which now includes the mysterious woman. As Carol approaches them, she can see that everyone’s eyes are a little misty, and Clint has the woman in a tight, tight bear hug.

“Just warn me next time,” she hears him say, “okay?” The woman nods but then sees Carol watching them, and pushes off of him. At his look of protest, she nods towards Carol.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Carol starts, but The Avatar shakes his head.

“It’s fine, Captain. You were amazing out there today. If we’d had more like you during the war, we might’ve won it a bit sooner.” The Avatar has a ripped sleeve revealing a cut down his arm, a fat lip, a burn across his right pants leg, and possibly a concussion from the way his eyes are moving. But he’s smiling, which is really something. He has a nice smile.

“Captain Danvers,” it’s the read headed woman, “my name is Natasha, and I’m a fellow organization member. This next question is very, very important: have you captured or killed anyone with a metal arm?”

Carol blinks, temporarily thrown for a second. A metal arm? Who could possibly have a metal arm?

“I’m sorry, but I’ve surveyed every prisoner myself, and we’ve already begun to gather the dead. No metal arms to be found.”

“I was afraid of that.” Natasha closes her eyes. “He isn’t here, the Winter Soldier isn’t here.”

Her eyes are closed, but Natasha still looks afraid. It’s not a look that suits a woman who dived off of a passing air bison into a battle she wasn’t prepped for. A look like that means something is really wrong.

“Where is he?” Clint asks, and Phil groans softly.

“Oh no. I think I know where. We need to leave, now. It’s Tony and Bruce.”

\---

“What the shit was that??” Tony yells, and he’s already slipping on the pair of gloves he had on the table. Of course he knows exactly what it was, but that doesn’t change the initial jump. And, to be honest, Tony didn’t really expect such a forceful attack. Corporate espionage was really what he was preparing for, not busting down his very nice and very expensive doors. Bruce just shakes his head.

“I don’t know, but I think I need to get out of here.” Bruce gasps as he struggles for control.

Tony stares at him for a moment, assessing. Numbers running back and forth in his head of probabilities and outcomes until he agrees that yes, Bruce is not ready to control that thing for battle, and he needs to leave.

“There’s a back entrance hidden inside that cabinet. Oh don’t look at me, I’m an eccentric billionaire I get to have secret tunnels in my house without judgment it’s in the job description. Go out and _go._ Get Rhodey. If something goes wrong… he’s the only one who can help me.” Hopefully nothing will go wrong, of course, but Tony isn’t willing to put money on that. Bruce nods.

“I’ll be back soon. Just. Hold him off.”

“Yeah,” Tony flexes one of the gloves, “I think I’m more than capable.”

Bruce bolts after that, and Tony would prepare further but he has all of 45 seconds before the attacker comes downstairs. His face is obscured behind some sort of mask. His hair is long, greasy. Like Tony, he is wearing a pair of thick goggles over his eyes. Something is off about the set of his left arm.

In short he looks like a fucking psycho.

“You know, there is such a thing as a knocking. And also breaking and entering, which you are currently doing. So really, the law is already on my side, and if I were you I’d just leave.” Tony opens up his palms and lets the fire come to life. “I’d say please, but this is my house and my property so forgive me if I’m not really feeling the politeness today.”

The other man is silent and staring, and for one bizarre moment Tony thinks he might be able to talk his way out of this, and then a chunk of rock is ripped out of the ground and thrown at his head.

Never mind then.

Tony dodges at the last possible second, sending a stream of flame back.

Tony should win this. It’s one against one. He has the home field advantage. Hell, if need be he can try to find a way to put on the full suit, even though it’s still highly experimental.

And then something happens.

Without even touching him, the man rips the metal gloves off of Tony’s hands, and he is suddenly stripped bare. He is an uncovered nerve. He is defenseless.

But that’s not the only metal he has on him.

Oh no.

“Oh fuck.” And Tony can suddenly feel the pressure in his chest, grinding the gears to a stop, his heart beating out of rhythm until it’s barely even beating anymore and it is happening _all over again_. “Not today buddy.” Is the only thing Tony manages to wheeze out before reaching towards Bruce’s chemical bench and throwing a random vial at his attacker.

He’s pretty sure it was acid, but you know, when a man reaches into your chest with his mind and begins to break down your mechanical heart piece by piece, sometimes you choose the wrong test tube.

The masked man raises his arm to protect himself, and the pressure on Tony’s heart eases up but it is still _wrong wrong wrong_ and he’s going to be sick. He’s going to throw up. He needs to open up his chest like now.

Then he looks at the man, who by all accounts should be howling in pain, and instead he’s looking at his arm. The acid (haha!) ate away the sleeve of his black jacket, but the arm is still there. A glistening steel arm, somehow not only attached to the body, but moving on the owner’s command.

How beautiful. What elegant design.

If Tony wasn’t about to die, he’d have more time to be angry that he didn’t invent it first.

As it is, his heart is all funny.

All funny.

Like when he first saw Pepper across the dance floor. Or like when Steve smiles at him over the breakfast table. Or that time that Rhodey pulled Tony’s stupid little sniffley body to his chest and hugged him like he hadn’t been hugged in years.

One of them.

Some of them.

One of them will save him.

Or he will save his fucking self because Tony Stark is not dying. Not here, not today.

He’s on the floor. His body isn’t working. He didn’t use to be on the floor, but he’s on the floor now, and he’s watching the man stuff the remaining vial of fuel in his jacket pocket, before taking off.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, Tony’s mother used to say. He thinks.

Time passes. Or maybe it doesn’t. He doesn’t know. But his chest hurts and he can’t breathe. It’s an endless agony that stretches on and on. Maybe this is how Steve felt in the iceberg. Which Tony bets would feel really nice right now. Just all that cold ice and not need to breathe and Rhodey.

Rhodey’s face is over his face.

“Tony? Tony stay with me. I’m here. C’mon buddy stay with me.”

“Heart.” Tony croaks out, and Rhodey’s eyes widen almost comically (except that nothing about this situation is comical) before he literally rips Tony’s shirt open and looks at his chest.

“The metal it’s… it’s all warped. Tony? Tony I’m sorry I know it hurts but I need to know, where is your spare?”

By this time Tony can barely lift his hand. In fact he can’t lift his hand. So he uses his eyes and prays that his years of being best friends with Rhodey have resulted in some telepathy.

Without Rhodey’s face over him, Tony is temporarily lost. A voice somewhere says no anchor, no anchor, sink or swim. Tony doesn’t know where that voice is coming from.

But then Rhodey is back and he has the heart _he has the heart in his hands!_

Which means that Tony can finally sleep now.

Rhodey will take care of him.

And then everyone else will come home.

Steve will be home.

And Tony can finally…

He can finally….

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOPS HAHA WHO SAW THAT COMING?? 
> 
> WHAT A WAY TO END THE CHAPTER WOW.
> 
> Also yes I did put Carol and Wanda and The Vision here because I love them. And hey wow if Billy and Tommy are around who else exists?
> 
> It was really fun to have a chapter that didn't have an explicit Steve section for once? I feel like now that we're comfortable with the world, we don't need him as the audience plant anymore? I dunno. Tell me what you think. DId you miss having a Steve section?
> 
> So, I feel right now I need to explain why Bruce kind of always wanders off during battles.  
> Basically, when it comes to Bruce Banner and The Hulk, I've never loved The Hulk? I mean, I've never really enjoyed writing him. It's fun and easy to be like "hulk smash!" but it's never been particularly interesting to me? I've always been more concerned with who Bruce Banner is as a person. And since this is an MCU fic, I think it really is the character of Banner in the movie that was used, and not the green guy who just sort of showed up a couple times and wreaked havoc. Like he was fun, sure, but we're giving all of the awards to Ruffalo, right? Who played Banner, and not Hulk.
> 
> So in this fic I made "the hulk" a power so prodigious that it wouldn't be something Banner could ever use casually, or something that people other than Tony and maybe someone else think could ever really be controlled enough to act as a weapon. It's something the body Bruce Banner can literally only bring out when he has no other option - even if he doesn't want to. It's not a joke, it's not cute, it's a serious risk and endangerment to all around him, it kills people, but it is something Bruce is working on accepting and using. 
> 
> And that's why he bolted from the fight.
> 
> It also connects to the spirit world which HEY might be important?


	13. The Broken Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this has taken longer than a week which was my original schedule but Pacific Rim sort of swooped in and took over my life and if you haven't seen it yet go. Go now. Quickly.

Tony is alive.

Rhodey reminds himself of that while he paces up and down the hallway outside of the healer’s room.

Tony is alive because Rhodey put a new heart into his chest. Because Rhodey may not be an inventing genius like Tony, but he knows his way around a wrench and a screwdriver. Tony is alive because Bruce hopped on the back of that moose lion and galloped away under the hot Fire Nation sun and Rhodey knew the instant he saw Bruce’s face what was wrong.

So Tony is alive, and Rhodey is grateful.

But Tony isn’t waking up, and Rhodey wants to know how a spy was even able to sneak past the army’s stake out in the first place. More than that, he wants to know exactly what the assailant did to wreck Tony’s heart like that. The metal was bent; twisted and warped in a way that no human hand could do. Rhodey had never seen anything like it before.

“Lieutenant Rhodes?” It’s the healer, and she beckons Rhodey into the room with a wrinkly finger. Before them is a pale, lifeless Tony who is clearly struggling with every breath. His hair lies damp against his forehead, and Rhodey can actually hear the gears turning in the outdated heart.

“How is he?”

“We’ve done all we can for him… as much as I hate to say this,” the healer sighs and looks at Tony, “we need a waterbender. There’s been too much internal damage to the heart, and we don’t yet have the technology to fix it without waterbending.”

“One should be on her way shortly,” Rhodey replies, and the healer nods grimly. Rhodey hopes he’s not lying, but the military said that the battle had ended and that the Avatar’s crew was already en route. Rhodey took that to mean that Natasha was traveling with them. She better be traveling with them.

“I hope she gets here soon, we don’t have much time.” Rhodey’s stomach flips at that. “You can stay with him, if you want.”

Of course Rhodey wants to stay with him.

He sits down cautiously in the chair left for him, and even though it’s stupid he grabs Tony’s hand and rolls his fingers between his own.

“You were really fucking stupid, you know that?” Rhodey asks, and of course Tony doesn’t reply. None of his indignant squawks or careful explanations of why he was right, why he only tried to do the right thing. Rhodey is sure he’ll hear all of that once Tony wakes up. “I came down to give you that warning – risking my job, I might add – and you end up like this anyway.” Rhodey peers at Tony’s face, which would be peaceful if it weren’t for the shuddering breaths Tony was trying to take. “But you gotta wake up out of this one, Tony. You gotta pull through for me, okay? We’re doing our part to find the bastard who did this, so you gotta do your part and wake up. It’s only fair.”

Rhodey has known Tony since they were boys in the Fire Nation Academy together. He’s seen Tony at his best, Tony at his worst, and Tony every other which way you could think of him. He’s watched Tony tear himself down only to build himself back up. Rhodey is proud to call Tony his friend, and privately he knows there’s not a lot Tony could get done if Rhodey wasn’t Tony’s friend.

Through thick and thin, Tony is Rhodey’s best friend, and he might die here.

Except that he won’t die. Rhodey won’t let him die. Not today.

“I fixed your heart once,” Rhodey says, “I can do it again if I have to. Just wake up.”

\---

They’re racing back on an air bison home, Steve and Natasha and Phil and Clint. Carol had given the bison to them without question, just said that she’d be back on the mainland in a couple days to collect it.

Steve is currently experiencing a confusing mix of emotions. On the one hand, he is so incredibly happy to have Natasha back. He’s not draping himself over her like Clint is currently doing – as if the physical loss of contact has to be made up for all in one go – but he’s staying close, already calmed by her presence. He missed her.

On the other hand, he’s still upset that she left in the first place. He knows that her past is hers to tell or hers to keep, but when it comes to the safety of their group Steve can’t help but feel that she should’ve opened up more in the first place. It’s not a fair thought, but right now Steve is operating with a loss of information, and being kept in the dark just reminds him of his early days as the Avatar where he was a part of everyone’s agenda but his own.

And there have been consequences. If Natasha had taken someone with her, one of them could be following the lead still while the other came back as a warning. If Natasha had told them what was happening, they might’ve tried to defend Tony and Bruce more, because as of right now it sounds like the two of them are in danger.

Steve doesn’t mean to scream all of this at Natasha in his head (because he isn’t going to say it out loud right now), but he’s scared for his friends.

“How do you know this Winter Soldier guy?” he finally asks after they’ve been flying in silence for a bit, and Natasha gives him a level look before sighing and answering.

“We used to be partners.”

“So, he used to be one of the good guys?” Though Steve is pretty sure he already knows the answer to that one.

“No, Steve, I used to be one of the bad guys.” Natasha draws her feet in, and rests her chin on her knees, her arms hugging her legs protectively. Steve feels Clint’s glare on the back of his neck, but he ignores it. This is information they all need to hear.

Besides, it’s not like Steve would ever judge Natasha for her past. If she made the decision to turn around, if she decided she wanted to do good and help people in her life, then that makes up for it, he thinks. Steve just wants to understand what’s going on.

“What can you tell us about him?” Steve asks.

“Well,” Natasha starts, “he’s dangerous, for one. He’s more poisonous than a sand-viper, and wilder than a devil-bear. He’s highly trained, highly motivated, and has almost never failed a mission before.”

“He sounds like a lot of people I’ve been up against in my life,” Steve says, because so far the Winter Soldier just sounds like your typical high profile mercenary. Those aren’t exactly a product of a new age.

“There’s one other thing,” Natasha says, “that almost nobody knows about.”

“What is it?”

“He can bend metal.”

Steve’s breath catches at that, because he’s only ever known one person in his life who could bend metal, and Bucky is long gone.

Steve remembers the first time Bucky did it – they’d been captured in the middle of the ocean and were on board what was basically a floating metal prison, no rock to be found. Steve had actually been placed in his own solitary confinement chamber, packed so tight he couldn’t even move his arms to bend air.

It was Bucky who came for him, Bucky who after days of straining his body and staring at the metal walls around him had realized something; metal was just an extract of rock.

Steve didn’t see what happened, obviously, all he knows is that it was Bucky who wrenched the door of his chamber open, who tore a path through the wall like he was cutting through paper and led them all to freedom.

He never doubted that Bucky would reach him, or that Steve would reach Bucky, but he was surprised at the method of it.

They kept the metal bending as much of a secret as they could, since Bucky had already seen Steve’s circus of a life and decided he wanted no part of it, but maybe more people found out about it than Steve knew. Maybe Bucky decided to keep that from him, since he didn’t want to put more problems on Steve’s shoulders.

Is it possible, before he died, that Bucky managed to teach the skill to someone else? Steve didn’t have time to learn it – too busy with training in his other elements, and saving the world – but maybe another soldier at the camp took an interest?

 If this person is some sort of descendent of a secret tradition connected to Bucky, it’s just more incentive for Steve to stop him. He can’t let someone use Bucky’s hard work like this. It’s an insult to his memory, and an insult to everything Bucky stood for.

There’s a thought tickling at the back of Steve’s mind throughout all of this. Something important that he just can’t place, just can’t quite remember.

He’s looking at Clint and Natasha when it hits him; Tony has a metal heart.

“We have to get home faster; I really think Tony is in danger.”

“Well yeah,” Clint snarks, “thanks for stating what everyone else already knew.”

“No,” Steve shakes his head in frustration, “you don’t understand. It’s Tony… he has a metal heart.”

A metal heart that was so small and fragile, any metal bender worth their salt could crumple it in an instant.

Tony could be dead already.

Steve closes his eyes and clenches his fists. Please, spirits above, let Tony not be dead. Steve’s already lost so much, he can’t lose Tony too.

\---

Tony sits up in bed.

The world feels cold for some reason. But wrong-cold. Cold without actually being cold.

Tony sits up in bed, and he notices that his body doesn’t follow.

“Shit.”

Okay Tony is officially panicking. He sat up but his body didn’t. It’s cold in all the wrong ways. He’s not breathing, he’s not even sure if there’s any air _to_ breath.

Obviously all signs point up. Tony must be dead. Is he dead? Tony can’t be dead. He has too much to do to be dead.

His Starkmobiles aren’t even in production yet, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. He never got Rhodey to test the new firebender suits he’d been making. Pepper – he didn’t give a real goodbye to Pepper oh god and Steve. He never said anything to Steve.

Fuck this is so fucking unfair, Tony has so much left to do. Why couldn’t that jerk with the mask be the one to end up dead?

“You aren’t dead.”

Tony jumps at that, because he’s pretty sure that in his moments of death he’d be alone. He turns around to see… Rhodey? Rhodey asleep on a chair in his healing room. Aww. That’s so sweet. Tony would give him a big ole kiss if he was alive.

But he’s not alive he’s dead and oh no he can’t bear to watch Rhodey wake up and discover that fact. Tony doesn’t want Rhodey to have to be the one to go through that. One of those jerk healers should do it, it’s their job.

So Tony focuses on something that isn’t Rhodey, and decides to look for the voice instead. But since sleepy alive Rhodey there is definitely not responsible for the words, who could it be?

“Okay mysterious voice, if I’m not dead then how come I’m moving around the spirit world right now?”

“First of all, really, you’re not dead. You’re only mostly dead.”

“Oh. I’m only mostly dead. Of course, what was I thinking? Thank you, that’s such a comfort.”

“Second of all,” the voice continues, “this isn’t the spirit world. _This,_ ” and suddenly Tony is ripped out of the room, and ripped out of time and space itself, “is the Spirit World.”

He’s standing in a place that could never be but is still front of him. It almost looks like the real world, but if Tony looks too closely he’ll notice that all of the angles are off and that the light doesn’t reflect right. It’s a mix between brown and blue which is a color that shouldn’t exist and yet somehow does anyways.

“Wow, I never thought it’d be so hideous.” Tony glances around, kicks at a rock on the ground and isn’t surprised to find that it’s trajectory in no way matches the laws of physics back in the living world.

“It’s only ugly to you because you’re not supposed to be here. A self-defense mechanism, I guess. You know all about those.” The voice says, and now there is an actually direction that the voice is coming from. Maybe. Tony’s not really sure how sound waves carry here.

“Where are you?” He calls out, picking his way through the swamp-like place that’s surrounding him. It’s tricky, and when he’s not looking he can feel shadows moving past him and it puts him instantly on edge and almost make him trip. If he fell here, would it hurt? If the shadow things got him, would he die? Tony doesn’t want to find out. “I get that the disembodied voice is supposed to be all mysterious and hair-raising, but it’s not really working for me. I’m kind of at the end of my rope here with creepy and weird, actually.”

“You do have a point.”

She appears before him then, as if she always was. She’s tall and proud, with gray hair swept back onto the top of her head and a mouth that says no nonsense will be happening on her watch. She’s dressed like she’s from a water tribe of some sort, though Tony’s can’t tell which. She’s also glaring at him, why is she glaring at him? It’s not like Tony got killed on purpose. Or whatever. Half-killed.

“Uh, hi. Do I know you? Are you an ancestor of mine, is that how this works?” Though Tony doesn’t know why he would have an ancestor in the water tribe, but stranger things have happened. The woman shakes her head and sighs as if she’s already tired with this.

“No, Mr. Stark, I’m not your ancestor. Pretty far from it, in fact.”

“But you are dead.” Tony is peering at the woman closely, walking small circles around her translucent body.

“Yes, I’m dead.” Tony tries to reach out a hand to pass it through her, but surprisingly she catches his wrist with a firm grip. “And, since you’re half dead, you’re not going to be able to phase through me. Everything here can touch you.”

“Can everything here hurt me?” Tony asks, because that’s really the important question.

“Only if you give it a reason to. Now come quickly, we don’t have much time.”

“Much time till what?” But the woman is already walking off, and Tony has no real choice but to follow her at the moment because he can still feel the shadows behind them and he doesn’t know what they’ll consider a good reason to hurt him to be.

The woman moves quickly, and Tony huffs (huffs what? There’s no air coming out of his lungs, is it just out of habit?) while trying to keep up, but the pace doesn’t stop him from asking questions.

“I’m not one who likes being left in the dark, okay?” Tony says as he nimbly darts over a root in the ground. “You have to tell me what’s going on here. Who are you? What are you showing me?”

“Well, we’ll start with your first question,” she says, and she doesn’t break stride, but she does give him a look over her shoulder, “you might have heard my name before, it’s Peggy Carter.”

Oh.

“And the second question?”

“That one… well, you’ll know it when you see it. I promise.”

\---

Bruce is scrambling around the destroyed workshop, because Rhodey told him to. Or really, Rhodey told him to do anything he needed to do to calm down, and Bruce decided to do this.

Bruce had jumped on back of Harley to get Rhodey, and then they’d gotten right back onto the moose lion to get Tony to the healers. Bruce helped the healer with all that he could, but in the end Bruce was no expert doctor – just a basic country practitioner. So he decided to help in a different way, and he came back to the lab to figure out exactly what happened.

The floor is ripped up in chunks, meaning that the attacker was definitely an earthbender. But he also somehow ripped open Tony’s chest which means… did he have some sort of tool for that? Did he incapacitate Tony first and then mess with his heart? And why not kill him, if he had the chance to? Because when Bruce and Rhodey came back there was no trace of the man and Tony was still clinging to life.

But that’s not the strangest thing, at least not in Bruce’s opinion.

Here are the two strange things that Bruce notices:

1)      There were two bottles of fuel on the table, and the attacker only took one of them, leaving plenty for Tony and Bruce to continue to test and replicate

2)      Despite clearly having the means to disrupt metal, the attacker chose to only hurt Tony and not touch anything else, like the engine, the frame of the Starkmobile, or Tony’s experimental suit

It doesn’t make any sense.

If one assumes that this attack came from someone targeting Stark Industries, but if they wanted to really gut the company then they would have destroyed or taken everything. They wouldn’t have left Tony with an economical feasible of putting the company back together after this. And yet, there was still enough here to get a Starkmobile running. Nothing had change from before the attack at all.

If one assumes that this attack came from someone targeting Tony Stark, why didn’t they kill him? Why didn’t they kill Pepper, who Bruce telegraphed and was already on her way back to the Fire Nation?

The attack was too coordinated to be random, and it did fit with the army’s basic information, so there had to be a purpose to it. What that purpose was, Bruce isn’t sure yet.

None of it makes sense, but what was really maddening about it was that the solution felt like it was just outside of Bruce’s reach. Like he had all the pieces of the puzzle, but he didn’t have his glasses so he couldn’t see well enough to put it back together.

Still, Bruce knows that any information he can gather right now will be useful.  Anything he can find, anything he can sense, anything he can think will be used to hunting down the attacker and bringing him to justice. He knows that Steve and the others will make sure of it.

By the time Bruce finishes cleaning up the lab (as much as he can, given that the floor was literally destroyed – Steve will fix that when he comes back probably) he isn’t any farther on his hypothesis about the attacker. He hasn’t found any more clues – no fabric left over, no hair, not anything. It’s like the man was a ghost. A really dangerous evil ghost.

And still the only thing missing is that one vial of fuel.

This is about the time that Bruce hears the front door to the mansion open, and Clint call out to see if anyone’s at home.

“In the workshop!” Bruce yells, and when that gets no response he runs upstairs to see them all standing there, looking bruised and bloody and torn to shreds. But they’re still standing, and that’s what matters. “Hey guys…” he says, and it sort of dissolves from there.

“Where’s Tony?” Steve asks.

“What happened?” Phil asks.

“Are you okay?” Thor asks.

“Did you see him?” Natasha asks.

“What did he take?” Clint asks.

That’s a lot of questions all at one time, and Bruce closes his eyes and breathes for a second before answering.

“I’m okay, Thor, thank you for asking.” Bruce starts, because why not answer the easiest question first. Then he turns to Phil. “What happened is a crazy guy came into the mansion - I didn’t see him, I ran out the back to get help. By the time Lieutenant Rhodes and I came back, Tony was on the ground barely breathing and Rhodey had to put a new heart into him.” Bruce sees Steve go white while the rest have a sharp intake of breath.

“Is he…?” Steve hesitates, and Bruce fills in the question for him.

“He’s not dead, no, but he’s close. He’s at the healers. Natasha, my guess is they’ll probably need you over there right now, so if I were you two I’d go.”

That’s all it takes for those two to spring into action, and Bruce can already feel a little of the tension of the day ease out of his shoulders just at seeing Natasha and knowing she’s okay. Knowing that she’s there to help.

They’re gone on Harley in an instant, not even bothering to say anything more. Everyone knows: nobody in this family dies as long as anyone can help it.

“What did he take?” Clint asks again, bringing Bruce back down to reality and Bruce eyes him, not suspiciously but wonderingly.

“How do you know he took something?”

“Buddy,” Clint says with a smile, “if there’s one thing I know, it’s the scene of a robbery. So what did he take?”

“That’s the thing,” Bruce says, and Phil, Clint, and Thor all lean in, “he didn’t take almost anything. Just one vial of fuel.”

“Do you have any more fuel left?” asks Phil, and Bruce nods.

“Yup, plenty left. He didn’t touch the designs, or the engine, or anything. Just the fuel. I can’t figure out why.” Bruce runs his fingers through his knotted curly mess of hair and shrugs. He’s tired. He’s so tired.

“Well, we’ll be sure to catch the villain,” Thor growls. “How dare he hurt our comrade! He shall pay for what he’s done.” Bruce swears he can see lightning flash in Thor’s eyes at that moment, and Bruce remembers why people talk about the formidable power of the Fire Nation Prince.

“If he only took the fuel…” Clint starts, and he chews his lip a bit, reasoning it out. Phil turns to him and waits, patiently, for Clint to continue. “If he only took the fuel,” Clint finally says, “then that means he only needed the fuel. He wasn’t stealing Tony’s designs or your geniuses or your lives or anything… he was getting an ingredient.”

“You’re sure?” Bruce asks, and Clint rolls his eyes.

“I mean, obviously I’m not the guy who stole the stuff so I can’t be 100% but, based on this MO? Yeah, I’m pretty sure. He kept Tony alive, didn’t he?”

“Yeah…”

“Yeah, don’t kill the cow if it’s still giving milk, y’know?”

Bruce takes a second to process that, thinks of the implications. As long as he and Tony keep inventing, then there’s a chance someone can do this again. But they can’t stop, they’ve come so close. He’ll have to talk it over with Tony once he wakes up. If he wakes up.

“He’ll wake up,” Thor says, putting a gentle hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “Anthony is nothing if not incredibly resilient.”

\---

“I feel like we’ve been walking for an eternity,” Tony whines. “Does time even exist in the spirit world? I mean, is it conceivably possible that we HAVE been walking for an eternity?”

“We’re almost there,” is all Peggy says, so Tony tries for a different tactic.

“So,” he says, “you used to be Steve’s girlfriend.”

“I was wondering when we’d get to this topic.” Peggy smiles and Tony frowns because he doesn’t like being predictable.

“Hey, I’m just making conversation here. It’s not like I really care.”

“Of course you don’t.” Peggy laughs a bit and now Tony is seriously irritated but he’s also stranded in the spirit world at the moment so he knows he can’t do anything but make nice.

“So you knew him way back when.”

“I did indeed.”

“When did you two, uh, meet?”

“When he was 16,” Peggy says, “and he came to learn waterbending. I was the only girl waterbender at the time, and I’d had to fight every step of the way tooth and nail to get to that position. A lot of the other benders didn’t take so kindly to the intrusion, but Steve was nothing like that.”

“Is that when you fell in love with him?” Tony asks, but Peggy rolls her eyes.

“You don’t fall in love with someone just for having basic common sense. Being a decent person is what you’re already supposed to do, Tony, it’s not something you’re rewarded for.”

“Then why did you love him?”

“Same reason that you do, I suppose,” and Peggy says this with such an air of authority that Tony doesn’t even try to argue with her. _‘No, I’m not in love with Steve, I’m just really…’_ Peggy’s been there, she knows that there’s no way that Tony could answer that question without it sounding like total and utter bullshit.

“Because Steve’s not just a decent person,” Tony says, “he’s… he’s beautiful, wonderful, awe-inspring… I sound like an idiot.”

“You do, but you’re not wrong. Steve is amazing because being The Avatar has nothing to do with how he feels about the world. He was always like that. Did you know he used to be small?” Peggy asks and Tony’s eyes widen. Steve? Small? Never. Granted, he wasn’t quite as huge as Thor, but Tony was pretty sure that Steve’s chest could’ve been carved from a hunk of granite.

“Are you sure you didn’t just eventually shrink?”

“He didn’t hit his growth spurt until he was 18, so until then I was about a head taller than he was. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, after his time earthbending he was certainly strong. Just… looking at him you’d never be able to tell.” Peggy’s eyes are fond as she remembers, and Tony finds himself suddenly burning with a weird sort of jealousy he’s never experienced before. How dare she know Steve before Tony did. How dare Steve exist before Tony knew him.

How are Steve give Tony someone like Peggy to compare himself to. Someone who clearly deserved Steve in a way that Tony does not.

“He misses you,” is what Tony decides to say, after a significant awkward pause. “He moped all the time when we woke him up – drove me absolutely crazy. I thought he was some sad pathetic unappreciative jerk but now… I see that he just missed you a lot. He missed his all life a lot. Why wouldn’t he?”

“I did marry eventually.”

“What?” Peggy’s comment throws Tony, because here they are talking about what a great guy Steve is, and suddenly she moves onto someone else.

“I got married eventually. Oh don’t look at me like that, it wasn’t the day after he died. It was several years later. I still loved Steve with all of my heart but I needed to move on, and live my life. Steve is learning to move on too.”

“What are you saying here?” Tony asks, but Peggy stops walking and lifts a finger to her mouth and points.

“We’re here.”

Tony can’t see anything at first, everything is just the same blue brown color that still feels wrong on his skin. After a couple seconds though, Tony begins to see it stand out against the nothingness. They’re shapes – the shadow shapes from before. There’s a whole group of them, and they seem to be standing around something. It’s…. Tony squints, really tries to see what it is, but he can’t quite focus on it. No matter how hard he looks, his eyes can’t register what’s in front of him.

“It’s pure power,” Peggy says, “just pure chi. Someone is taking power out of the spirit world, and taking it to your world of the living.”

“I’m not even sure what that means,” Tony admits, because he is a man who deals with the real and the physical, and here in this world where he can’t predict how high a rock will go if he kicks it, he is deeply deeply out of his comfort zone.

“Someone from your world is planning an attack, and he partnered with someone from our world.”

“He? So do you know who he is then?”

“We don’t have much time,” Peggy says instead of an answer, “you have to tell Steve what’s happening here. He has to know that you’re not just fighting this in the real world, but the spirit world as well. Terrible things are happening here, and he…” The world fritzes out then, in a splash of white light, and then Tony is back in the spirit world but it’s almost like his ears are being muffled and he can’t quite here what Peggy’s saying.

“Peggy? Hey, but who is doing all of this?”

“If I speak his name, they’ll hear me. They’ll grow stronger. Tell Natasha she’s right.”

The world flashes white again, and Tony feels real breath entering his lungs. What’s happening? It’s like he’s losing his connection here somehow.

“You’re waking up,” Peggy says and the look she gives him is fond. “You can’t even speak, can you?”

Tony can’t.

“Tony, take good care of him for me, okay?” Tony would ask who she was referring to but he already knows and anyways he can’t talk, can’t even move anymore. “better for him than you think you are, I promise. It was a pleasure to meet you, Tony Stark. I hope we don’t have to see each other again for a long time.”

Peggy places a kiss on Tony’s forehead and suddenly with one last flash of white he is sitting up and trying to suck every bit of oxygen in the world into his lungs. This time, his body follows.

\---

Steve and Natasha had wasted no time jumping on the back of Harley and rushing to the healers. Rhodey was still waiting there, half asleep in his chair with his arms folded across his chest. The healer (who had not exactly seemed pleased to see Natasha) had coughed once politely and Rhodey immediately jumped up and stood at attention.

“At ease,” Steve said on reflex, and Rhodey seemed to remember where he was and he relaxed his body and sat back down.

Natasha didn’t even ask for permission, just took the water out of her vial and floated it right over Tony’s heart, her brow knitting together in concentration.

It was hard for Steve to watch. He had been around the dead and the dying before, and it was never something he was comfortable with, but it hit even harder with Tony. To see a man who was normally so full and life and spark fighting for it with every breath… especially when Steve might have feelings for that man… especially when they just fought a few days before and those might’ve been Steve’s last words to Tony ever.

It was too much to think about and it absolutely churns Steve’s stomach that Tony could’ve died thinking that Steve was angry with him. Which, to be fair, Steve totally was at the time. But the fact remains that if Tony dies, there will be a lot that he will never know. A lot Steve will have never told him. What a cruel joke the world would be playing on him.

Steve can’t do it again. He can’t lose someone like this again. He doesn’t know how his heart would be able to take it.

“His hear sustained so much damage,” Natasha murmurs, almost unconsciously, “it’s a miracle he’s even alive. The second metal heart was just barely able to keep him going.”

“You kept him alive,” Steve says to Rhodey, and he nods.

“Been my job to do that for a long time. I don’t know where he’d be without me. Are you going to be able to fix him?” Rhodey asks, and Natasha gives an affirmative nod.

“It was a close one, but he should be okay.”

Steve let’s out the breath he’d been holding since Phil first told them that Tony and Bruce might be in danger. Tony’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay. Steve takes a second to evaluate just the sheer impact that information has on his life, on his stability. He wonders at the importance Tony has gained in his life, the space in his life he’s come to occupy, and it’s a feeling Steve wasn’t ever sure he’d get back when he first woke up from the ice.

Tony matters to Steve. He matters a lot. That’s the final truth.

Steve wishes he could hold Tony’s hand right now.

He wishes he knew what to do about this whole thing, but Steve’s never been one to make the first move in a relationship.

“Does the army have any information on the man who attacked him?”

“Nope, slipped in and out like a damn shadow.”

Natasha remains noticeably silent on this subject, and Steve understands her; don’t give someone connected to the army more information than he needs. Even if he is Tony’s best friend.

Natasha works on Tony’s heart for another 10 minutes, and even though she said he would be okay Steve can’t help but continue to worry, even if wasn’t the same heart-stopping fear as before. Okay, bad phrase to use.

They wait another thirty minutes where Tony doesn’t wake up, despite Natasha’s assurances that he would.

“Just give him time,” she says, but Rhodey and Steve are both a little too on edge to really listen to words of patience at the moment.

Steve thinks of the drawing he did of Tony while waiting for the battle to start. He thinks of the way that he can never get Tony’s eyes quite right. He thinks about the real smiles Tony had started giving him, and how seeing one directed at him was like a light bulb being flicked on.

Tony wakes up with a gasp  that sends Steve jumping out of his chair because it’s like Tony breathing in Steve himself, and Steve realizes that’s because he’d been tracking the movement of air around Tony’s face ever since they got here.

Rhodey is immediately there, lifting a glass of water to Tony’s lips and telling him to drink as much of it as he can. Steve watches Tony drink greedily, draining the cup and asking for another with hand gestures, then draining that one too.

“Sorry,” Tony croaks, and Steve could cry or kiss him right there, or maybe both, “but my voice isn’t really cooperating right now. In fact my whole body feels out of sorts. Do you know how hard it to pilot yourself after you’ve been stuck in The Spirit world for an eternity?”

“Where?” Rhodey asks, and Steve sees Tony try to give him one of his cock-sured smiles but he’s so spent it just comes out as a grimace.

“Took a little trip, me and your lady, Steve.”

“My lady?” Steve doesn’t have a lady. Steve hasn’t had a lady in technically 70 years.

“Peggy Carter.” Oh. “She says hello.” Oh. Steve just doesn’t know how to respond to that, but thankfully he doesn’t need to, because Tony immediately turns to Natasha. “Also, Natasha, she says you’re right. We’re all in deep shit, let me tell you. I’ve been to the Spirit World, and unfortunately the news isn’t good.”

What Steve would like to do right now is pull Tony into his arms, hold him close and maybe fall asleep together where they are warm and comfortable and safe. However, he knows that he can never be afforded such luxuries, especially not when trouble is beating at their doorstep. Like always, the world’s problems come first.

“What did you see?” Steve asks, and Tony sighs.

“I’m sorry Steve, but this problem is going to be a big one for you. They’re siphoning power out of the Spirit World, and they’re bringing it here to someone.”

“Who?”

It is Natasha, and not Tony who answers the question.

“Loki Laufeyson.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have chapter summaries always been an option?
> 
> OH MY GOD FINALLY PIECES ARE STARTING TO COME INTO PLAY LOOK AT THAT
> 
> finally  
> geezus it only took till chapter 13

**Author's Note:**

> This would not have been possible without fuckitfireeverything.  
> Also everyone else who put up with me on tumblr


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